The flax is now ready to be freed completely of its woody particles. This is effected by scutch ing. Previous to this, however, the flax is passed through a brake, or revolving rollers, in order thoroughly to crack the boon. The brake, worked by manual labor, consists of a frame, on the upper side of which are a number of grooves; a mov able piece is hinged at one end, and provided with a similar grooved piece on its lower side, but so placed that the projections pass into the hollows of the lower. The flax, placed between these, and struck by bringing down the hinged part, is brok en, but the fibre remains uninjured.
In the tlax-breaking machine the flax is passed through a series of horizontal fluted rollers; the flutes do not touch, thus preserving the fibre while breaking the boon. In Austria and other European countries a more primitive, but, it is claimed, less injurious method of breaking is pursued, in which the fibre is opened with a 'bott-hammer' (batting-hammer), which is made of wood ridged like a cook's implement for pounding steak. In Continental countries scotch ing is almost invariably performed by hand, the flax being held in a groove made in an upright stand, and struck by a flat blade. Machine scutehing is much more certain and expeditious than hand scotching, and is. in consequence, fast superseding it in Great Britain. After passing through the breaking-machine, the flax is sub jeated to the action of a series of knives attached to the arms of a vertical wheel; these knives strike the flax in fhe direction of its length. The process is gone through three times before the flax is ready for the market. Although ma chine scotching is expeditions, it is not capable of that pliant adaptation to the varying nature of the flax to be operated upon, which is obttined in hand scotching. The effect of machine scotch ing is to produce fineness by reducing and im parting rather than sustaining the character of the fibre—namely, the length and fineness of its `staple' or fibre. In the chapter on '"l'he Present
Status of Flax Culture," in the Year Rook of the United States Department of Agricnitnre for 1897. it is stated that a practical machine scutch cr is a desideratum, "for the fact remains that notwithstanding the many inventions of such ma chines that Inc ye been brought to public notice.
• . . the Department of Agriculture cannot state authoritatively from experience that there is one that may be recommended as successful." The initial processes of linen manufacture thus far described are usually performed by the farm er, although there is a tendency within recent years for the preliminary work of rotting, bleach ing, breaking, and scotching to he performed by companies, who buy the straw direct from the fields and prepare it for the linen factory. The next step that the flax undergoes is that of heck ling, the object of which is to separate the longer and better portion of the fibre, called 'line,' from the shorter and raveled portion, called 'tow.' The hand heckle is a many-toothed steel comb, and the fineness of the flax increases with the number of times it is heckled, each time with a finer and finer instrument. Heckling is now usually performed by machinery. (See IlEcic LEs.) The fibre is then in readiness for spin ning and for manufacture into linen, for which operations see the articles on SPINNING and The world's production of flaxseed in 1898 was estimated at 75,914,000 bushels. Of this amount, America produced 26,833,500, Europe 31,241,500, India 17,839,000 bushels. The production of fibre was 1,762,566,000 pounds, all credited to Europe. Russia leads all countries in the pro duction of both seed and fibre. Consult: Dodge, Dictionary of the Fibre Plants of the World (Washington, 1897) ; also "Fibre Investigations," in United Stales Department of Agriculture Re port No. 9 (Washington, 1897). See FIBRE.