Harvesting.—The time for harvesting the crop must be judged with great care ; the plant is ready when the portion of its stalk nearest the ground commences to assume a yellow tint, the leaves at 8-10 in. from the ground fall off, and the top seed-bolls begin to show a very slight brownish hue. Pulling too early entails a tender fine fibre, which will waste much in scutching ; by allowing the plant to become too ripe, the fibre is rendered dry and coarse, and the additional weight does not compensate for the inferior quality. When any of the crop is lying, and suffering from wet, it should be gathered as soon as possible, and kept apart.. Dry clear weather must be chosen for the harvest. Neither scythe, sickle, nor reaping-machine is employed, though the last-mentioned has been tried unsuccessfully in Ohio. The plant is up-rooted by hand, by experienced persons, and never by children. The proper method is to seize the plant just below the seed-bolls, and to remove it perpendicularly by a dexterous jerk of the arm. When the ground is uneven, the stems will vary in length ; in such cases, each length should be pulled separately, and kept apart throughout the subsequent processes. Every care is necessary to keep a uniform length of stem, and to exclude weeds ; hence the non-success of the ordinary harvesting implements. The flax as pulled is laid down in handfuls of a size that can be conveniently grasped, and crossed so as to avoid entanglement, scrupulous attention being paid to keeping the " butts " or root-ends exactly even.
Seeding or Rippling.—The next step is the removal of the seed, for which purpose, the hand fuls are carried by children to the " ripplers." The " rippling-comb " consists of a row of round iron teeth, screwed into a slab of wood ; the teeth are about -d in. apart at bottom, in. at top, 18 in. long, and begin to taper at about 3 in. from the top. The comb is bolted to a plank, lashed to the body of an unmounted cart, or to a frame surrounded by a sheet, either being placed in the pulling field. Each handful of stems is taken very tightly in both hands, and slightly spread out like a fan ; the extreme ends are brought down upon the teeth of the comb, and carefully drawn through, repeating the stroke, and increasing the length of stem acted upon, until all the bolls have been removed ; 3-4 strokes generally suffice. A more modern implement for this purpnee is the seeding-machine, which simply consists of two heavy cast-iron cylinders, revolving within a cast-iron frame, the lower cylinder being driven from pulleys, and the upper one turning in contact with the lower, and releasing the seeds by the pressure of its weight upon the seed bolls. Ernest Legris, of Pontrieux, Cotes du Nord, has recently introduced a more complicated machine, shown in Fig. 666. The beets a are spread on a table, with their seed-ends turned towards the heaters b ; they are pressed down on an endless chain, furnished with corrugations, which passes them slowly and regu larly under the blows of the beaters. Each beet
receives the successive blows of the three beaters, and arrives, completely seeded, at the end of the table, where it passes down a screen e, to be piled in ordor. At the end of each stroke of the beaters, the elastic) shakers d come into play, and shake out the seeds, which fall into a recep tacle placed beneath.
The machine is driven by the fly-wheel pulley f, and requires three attendants. As fast as the flax is rippled, it is tied in "beets " or buodles of small size, and loose iu the band. The best bands are rushes, but tying may also be done with short flax. The beets are then ready to undergo the various processes for extracting the fibre. It should be added that whereas rippling is only performed immediately the flax is pulled, machine seeding is confined to flax-straw which has been dried in the field, and held over till the following spring.
The further treatment of the seed will be described under Oils—Linseed.
Extraction and Preparation of the Fibre.—The extraction and preparation of flax may be divided into the following seotions :— Retting.—This is the most important step in the extraction of the fibre from the " boon " or woody portion of the stem, and consists in subjecting the latter to a certain degree of fermentation, in order to decompose the gummy matter which binds the filaments together. It is performed in a variety of ways, which may be classified under dew-retting, simply water-retting, and water-retting with the aid of heat, chemicals, &c.
" Dew-retting" is employed on all the Archangel flax, and on most of that from St. Peters burg. The flax, as soon as pulled, is spread on the grass, under the influence of air, light, dew, and rain, for a lengthened period. The fibre assumes a brown colour, and is more liable than any other kind to "heat," if exposed to damp, and closely peeked. It is, however, of soft and silky quality. Outside Russia, dew-retting is scarcely ever employed.
" Water-retting," " watering," or " steeping," is the process most generally in vogue. The two essential conditions are suitable water, and suitable "dams" or ponds. Soft water is by far the best ; hard water improves much by exposure to the atmosphere. The presence of iron, unless in ' euch proportion as to cause rust, should not condemn the water, unless better can be had ; the only effect of iron is to discolour the fibre somewhat, and thus lower its value. Water containing lime must not on any account be used. As an easy test of the suitability of water for retting purposes, it may be stated that any water in which soap will not curdle is sufficiently soft ; but the softer it is, the better.