After the seed has vegetated and is about two inches high the weeding begins, for no fine flax can be produced if the crop is choked with weeds. Flax is harvested by pulling the straw out of the ground, roots and all, the straw being laid in handfuls to dry, and afterward' made into bundles, which are stacked in the field. Practice varies, however, in different countries as to the handling before the retting period. In Flanders the greatest care is given to drying and storing, in order to keep the flax clean and bright for the final process of retting.
There are three methods of soaking or ret ting the straw: Dew retting is the simplest and the least careful, the straw being spread over the field like hay, to be retted by the dew and by the action of the elements. Pool retting is practised by immersing the straw in pools of stagnant water, the softest water giving the best results. The pools are dug in the ground for the purpose, though a great deal of the Irish flax is retted in °bog holes.° Retting in running water is the third method, this form of retting being practised in Belgium; the famous Courtrai flax is retted in the sluggish and murky waters of the river Lys, the straw, in bundles, being placed in large crates and weighted with paving stones until the crates sink sufficiently to fully cover the flax. The flax of Courtrai, retted in the Lys, is the finest flax in the world. It is very light in color, clean and even, and shows a superior tensile strength. The fax is given two immersions, the straw being taken from the crates and carefully dried before the second immersion.
The first operation in cleaning or extracting the fibre is to pass the straw through a breaker, which loosens the woody portions of the stem, and reduces them to fragments, to facilitate the next operation, the scutching, which whips out the "chive° and all waste matters and leaves the pure flax fibre. In former times the scutching was done by hand, though now machinery is generally used. The scutched flax is subse quently hackled or dressed by repeated comb ings,' which removes the short and broken or tangled fibre, these combings
tow. Each hackling adds to the quality of the fibre, and of course to the cost. Flax is usually im ported in the scutched form, the hackled flax known as °dressed line The cheaper grades of flax come from Canada and Russia, the medium and finer grades from Holland and Ireland. The product is used in the United States for threads, twine and crash, as no fine linen is woven in America. In 1914 we manu factured about $5,000,000 worth of linen thread, $1,000,000 of linen twine and $3,200,000 of dressed flax and flax tow. Mexico produces some good flax, and there are linen mills in Mexico city which produce fair grades of fabric. For the details of flax culture and manufacture, consult