FLAX CULTURE AND PROCESSING

flax straw, after being bruised, is placed in metal holders, something similar to those used in Marsden’s hackling machine; and these holders, their placed upon a slide, are carried along the machine by a leather band, the beaters striking the flax during their passage.

Notwithstanding the many improvements in scutching machinery, it still requires further attention. The chief desideratum is to clean the fibre thoroughly, without tearing off any of it with the wood. A considerable waste occurs, even with the best machinery at present in use, consisting of torn fibres matted together, which, under the name of codilla, or scutching-tow, brings in the market only a sixth or a tenth of the value of long flax. The cost of scutching bears also an undue proportion to the other processes, and will no doubt be, at some future time, more economically performed.

The employment of machinery for scutching is, as might be expected, leading to a displacement of hand labour. Many scutch-mills have been exported to Egypt, Russia, Germany, Denmark, France, and other countries, and no doubt both the scutching and the spinning of flax by machinery will soon be universal.

In the details which I have had the honour to lay before you, taking for my text the display of flax products in the Great Exhibition, I have endeavoured to present some general information on the distribution of the plant at the present time throughout the globe, briefly describing the different methods employed for the separation of its fibre.

I should be highly remiss were I to conclude, without an allusion to the influence which the Exhibition may be estimated to produce upon the quantity and quality of this raw material, that shall in future be furnished for the aliment of the linen manufacture. By the display of the article produced by different countries, visitors have been enabled to compare and weigh the merits and demerits of each sample; to observe in what respect the Russian differed from the Belgian, the Egyptian from the Irish, and the Dutch from the French; and to note which was suited for canvas, which for threads, and which for fine linens, damask, or cambric. In examining the fibre produced by different modes of retting, and cleaned by different methods of scutching, as exhibited in different machines, those interested in developing the resources of their respective countries have doubtless carried away many useful ideas. The evident room for improvement which still exists in the retting and scutching operations will turn many ingenious minds to the devising of more efficient modes of effecting these processes. Indeed, since the closing of the Exhibition, several new plans respecting these have been brought forward, some of which appear to possess considerable merit.

An influential association organized at Belfast, eleven years ago, by the union of the leading landed proprietors of Ulster and the flax-spinners and linen-manufacturers of Ireland and Great Britain, having acquired, through its experience, much valuable information, and having been the means of introducing several useful improvements in the culture and preparation of flax, naturally attracted the attention of those foreign exhibitors and visitors who were interested in these subjects. I cannot more appropriately demonstrate the general tendency of the Exhibition in arousing a spirit of inquiry, than by quoting the following passages from the Report of the Royal Belfast Flax Society for 1851:—

“The interest,” it remarks, “which has for some time prevailed in foreign countries on the subject of flax culture, and the curiosity excited by the Society’s labours, caused a number of persons to come from the Exhibition to Belfast, in order to inquire into the improvements which the society has introduced. Among these were individuals from Russia, Prussia, Austria, Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Spain, France, Sweden, and Sardinia. According to invariable practice, all were received with courtesy, and the information required was freely accorded them. The Society’s instructors have ever been well received on their visits to Belgium; and in reciprocating such good feeling to foreigners, it has appeared to the Committee that, while no attempt to conceal improvements can prevent them from being ultimately discovered, it is of great advantage to Ireland that such generous rivalry should be encouraged; for she, in her turn, may profit, as she has already profited, by foreign discoveries; and it must be considered a privilege that the Society has thus been enabled, in however slight a degree, to cement those bonds of good feeling and mutual friendly offices, which, by encouraging international commerce, must tend to the advantage of the world at large.”

It may be advantageous to append to this lecture a few remarks upon the most judicious mode of entering upon or of improving the cultivation of flax in the British Islands. The tendency of recent legislative enactments has been to draw attention to the agricultural products which the climate and soil of the British Isles are best calculated to furnish with profit to the occupier of land. It has been already stated that all the elements of success in the production of flax are present, and it is only necessary to provide that proper instruction in the details of culture shall be given the grower, and that the mechanical appliances for preparing the fibre for sale shall be provided. The best soil is a friable loam, well drained. Flax may follow a corn crop, and clover and grass seed may be sown with it. Two ploughings and harrowings in winter, and a third harrowing before sowing, are necessary, but no manure is required. The seed may be either Riga, Dutch, or home-saved. Riga gives the hardiest plant, Dutch the finest fibre; but well saved seed, grown at home from a sowing of Riga in the previous year, is equal, if not superior to foreign. In subsequent years it deteriorates, and should only be used for feeding or sold to the crushers. April is the best month to sow, the land being made up in flats about ten feet wide, and the sowing broad cast harrowed in with a bush harrow. If weeds rise, the crop should be carefully cleaned by children, care being taken not to injure the delicate stems of the flax. In the latter end of July or the beginning of August the crop may be pulled up by the roots, not cut as grain. Then, after taking off the seed-pods, by drawing the stems through a machine with iron pins, termed a “ripple,” the stems may be at once steeped in pools of water, or the plant, as pulled, may be tied up in small handfuls, and stocked as grain, but so that all the tops are exposed; then, when thoroughly dry, stacked, the seed threshed off in winter, and the stems steeped in the following summer. When steeped in the ordinary method, in pools or streams, from one to three weeks are required. The test of the fermentation being completed is the power of separating the fibre from the woody stalk, by breaking the latter in the middle, and pulling off the fibre for the entire length of the stem. When taken from the steep the stems are spread on the grass to dry, turned when the upper side is dry, and then cocked again in bundles for a few days and stacked afterwards. The scutching or cleaning of the fibre for sale, is accomplished as previously noted in this lecture. Leeds, Belfast, and Dundee, are the chief markets; and the value of British and Irish flax ranges from £30 to £160 per ton. The produce of a statute acre is about five hundredweight of fibre, and fifteen bushels of seed. The latter is worth 5s. to 6s. per bushel for feeding.

Owing to the high price of labour in England, flax cannot be profitably scutched by hand. Hence in a district where it is about to be introduced, a scutch-mill is absolutely necessary; the machinery for which, exclusive of buildings and motive power, costs about £150, and will clean the produce of an acre per diem. The best machinery is to be procured in Belfast.

As a rotation crop flax is very valuable. It is the best nurse of grass and clover, since the pulling of the flax moulds or top-dresses the young plants, which