cultivator's attention, the weeding; this is done by women chiefly at a time when the flax plants are from 3 to 6 centimeters high (approxi mately 1 to 2 inches), or at the end of eight to ten days from time of sowing. The women (sometimes men or boys) work upon their knees in this operation, proceeding against the wind in order that the plants may soon be blown or returned to their normal position again. Some attention is also paid to the time of weeding, as neither a too wet nor too dry condition of the soil is desirable. On good soil, from which weeds have been pretty well eradicated by thorough culture, one weeding suffices, though occasionally two and even three weedings are necessary.

Of the diseases that flax is heir to in Belgium nothing can be said here, owing to limited space. As to accidents due to meteorological causes, as high winds straining and toughening the stems, or heavy rain-storms, which sometimes cause the flax in a whole field to lodge or break down, or hail, which play worse havoc, there is little that can be done in such cases. Professor Damseau, of the State agricultural experiment station at Gembloux, informed me that hail does great injury to the growing flax, even when the stalks are not broken, owing to the fact that where the straw is struck by the hailstone a knot or knob forms which "breaks the length" in the final operations of cleaning and dressing. In case of total destruction, when the flax is not more than a foot high, a crop has sometimes been secured by immediately cutting it down to a couple of inches all over the field and letting it grow up again.

In Flanders, and throughout Belgium as well, the seed is of secondary importance, and therefore to obtain as fine and strong a fiber as possible the flax is pulled before it is fully ripe, or when it is just beginning to turn yellow, coarse flax ripening earlier than fine. The work is done (or begins usually) the last week of June, sometimes a little earlier, for, as the old proverb runs, " C'est Juin qui fait le lin" (" June makes the flax").

The flax is pulled with great care, the ends being kept very even, and the straw laid in handfuls upon the ground, a line of straw first being laid down, which serves to bind these handfuls when a sufficient quantity has been pulled to tie. When put into stooks to dry, the seed ends being tied together, the bottom ends are opened out, giving to the stook the appearance of an A tent. After drying in the stook the handfuls of straw are then tied into small bunches or "beets" and piled, something as cord-wood is piled in this country, two poles being first laid upon the ground to prevent injury to the bottom layer by dampness, and two poles driven at each end of the pile to keep the "hedge" in form.

In piling it is the custom to reverse the beets in alternate layers; before the top layer is put on a row of beets is laid lengthwise near the edge of the pile, so that the top layer will be given the proper slant to

shed the rain. The flax is left in this position for several weeks, and then either retted very soon or put into immense stacks, or sometimes into sheds, to remain till spring. I found a great diversity of practice in different sections in the method of handling the flax after pulling and before the retting.

The practice detailed above pertains to Flanders more especially, while in the Brabant and elsewhere a very different practice prevails. M. DeVuyst, of the State agricultural inspection, with whom I visited a flax-growing locality in the Brabant, informed me that the seed is usually removed soon after the flax is pulled. A common method of accomplishing this is to draw the heads through a hetchel or comb of square iron pickets some fifteen inches high. These pickets are about half an inch wide at base, and, as they are pointed at the top, the spaces between them grow narrower as the bottom board into which they are driven is approached by the head of the bundle of flax straw, and the seed capsules are detached. When the seed vessels are dry, they are threshed with an instrument made from a square block of wood, either flat on the bottom or fluted to form coarse teeth, a curved handle being mortised into the top. In a scutch-mill near Gembloux I witnessed two other methods of getting out the seed, this being accomplished in the first instance by means of a machine with large crushing-rolls, the ends of which were free at one side of the piece of mechanism, in such manner that only the heads of the flax could be passed through, the bundle of straw remaining uninjured in the operator's hands. Two or three times passing through sufficed to crush the capsules and clear the seed perfectly. The other method was to go over the straw with a heavy roller upon a slatted floor, through which the seed and chaff fell. In Courtrai the seed is usually mauled out with the contrivance described above. This is done in sheds for the most part or on floors, though I have seen the work going on out of doors at the side of the highway, or on the stone paving in front of the peasants' cots.

There are three systems of retting practiced in Belgium, the dew retting most commonly followed in the neighborhood of Brussels, and in the flax district I visited near Gembloux; the retting in crates anchored in running water (rouissage au ballon), as practiced in the River Lys, in Flanders, and the system of plunging the flax straw into pools or cisterns as soon as pulled, which pertains in the Waes country and some other sections. The dew retting need not be described here, as it is the usual practice in our own country, giving an uneven and least valuable product of all methods of retting. In the pool retting the pits or reservoirs are dug some months in advance, so that the loose earth will have been washed from the walls and they will be clean. They are of varying dimensions, and are sometimes divided into several compartments by partitions these are formed either of boards or walls of sod, or of earth, the bottom being very clean. Sometimes alder fagots are placed with the flax to influence its color, slight differences in color depending

upon many things, all of which are taken into consideration by the operator. The first process is to secure the seed, as has been described, after which the flax is again bound into small bundles, which must be neither too light nor too loose, so that the water will penetrate them freely after they have been placed in the pits. To keep the bundles under water they are covered with a layer of straw, on which sods, or in some localities stones or boards, are placed. Precisely how long the flax should be allowed to remain in the water must be determined by the operator; five to ten days is the range, the quality of the growth itself, the weather, and other circumstances all being considered. A farmer learns by experience when the flax is sufficiently retted to raise, though tests by breaking a few stalks from time to time must be made. After being "washed out" or "taken out of the rot," and while still wet, the straw is spread upon the neighboring fields to dry, or in order that the process of retting may be completed; the precise duration of time necessary for this operation is also determined by various circumstances. By breaking a few flax stalks or rubbing them between the palms of the hands, however, the farmer can judge pretty nearly when the crop should be housed.

The Courtrai method of retting is the most interesting, though not as important to us, for (presumably), there is no River Lys in America, and if there were one, it would not be desirable to use it for retting flax. There is but one Lys in Belgium, a dark and murky stream, with sullen flow, its waters an indescribable greenish hue, and its odor as pronounced as its color, yet to its banks comes the flax of this entire region, by the wagon-load, by the car-load, and even by railway trains of twenty to thirty cars, loaded like hay, though in the regulation bundles, and covered with large oil cloths or tarpaulins. I shall never forget my first walk up the Lys on a bright September afternoon in company with M. Frederick D'Hont, director of the Communal Laboratory of Agricultural Chemistry, Courtrai.

But 3 miles of the right bank of the river was traversed, though the flax industry occupies its banks for 20 miles. On both sides of the narrow stream, reminding one of a canal more than a river, though there was no tow-path, back for 50 rods or more, and as far into the distance as the eye could reach, one saw only flax. There were the immense stacks containing tons and thatched as carefully as the roofs of the peasant cottages. There were acres of "hedges," as the "cord wood” piles are called, and long lines of the big bundles made up ready for immersion, while farther back in the fields were the opened bundles or beets, tied at the top and spread apart at the bottom in circular form, like bell-tents, the plan always adopted for drying the flax that has been immersed. This is the manner of packing the bundles for immersion: Crates or frames of wood are used, having solid floors of boards, the sides being open. These measure about 12 feet square and perhaps a meter in height, or a little over a yard. First a strip of jute burlap is

carried around the four sides, on the inside, coming well to the top rail of the crate. This is to strain the water, or to keep out floating particles or dirt which would injure the flax by contact with it. The bun. dles, which measure 8 to 10 inches through, are composed of beets laid alternately end for end, so that the bundle is of uniform size throughout. They are stood on end and packed so tightly into place that they can not move, each crate holding about 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of straw. When a crate is filled the entire top is covered with clean rye straw and launched and floated into position in the stream. It is then weighted with large paving blocks or other stones until it has sunk to the top rail, when it is left for the forces of nature to do the remainder. The time of immersion is from four to fifteen days, dependent upon temperature of the water and of the air, quality of flax, and other influences. There are several delicate tests which indicate when the flax should come out, although the near approach of the time is made known by the self-raising of the crate out of the water (often a foot or more), caused by the gases of decomposition.

When ready to remove, the crate is floated opposite a windlass, and there are many along the shore, the chain attached, and the affair pulled half way up the bank, when the bundles are at once removed. The big bundles are taken back to the field and are now broken up and again put into the form of the little bell-tents described above. This work is done by boys, who show great dexterity not only in spreading and standing up the little bundle when it is first opened for drying, but in the subsequent operation of turning the tent completely inside out, so that the straw that was shaded in the interior may be subjected to the air and sunshine and the drying be accomplished evenly.

After this drying process is completed, the flax again goes into the big bundles for a second immersion, and I was told sometimes a third, though rarely. This work begins in September and continues until too cool to ret the flax advantageously. Then it begins again in March and continues until all the flax has been retted. Much of the unretted flax is carried over to the next year in this manner. Not only is it thought to improve the flax in quality, but is better for the producers, enabling them to hold their product for good prices when the fall prices are low.

Formerly the farmers did the principal part of the retting, selling their crop to the merchants in the form of fiber. I was told that this custom no longer prevails, the work now being carried on wholly by the flax merchant, who either buys the pulled straw of the farmer or purchases the standing flax, in the field, his own employés doing the pulling. When the farmer does the pulling he hauls the crop to the Lys, unless he wishes to hold it over, securing the market price that prevails at the time. Many flax merchants are also owners of scutch mills, and have charge of the entire manipulation from the time the crop is ripe until the cleaned fiber is sold.

I visited one of these scutch mills in the little hamlet of Waverlyhem, 20789-No. 1-2

and witnessed with pleasure the entire process of converting the clear, glistening, almost white straw, into the beautiful semi-golden line fiber which distinguishes the flax of western Flanders. The rude machinery was run by steam, the brake being a primitive affair, with simple fluted rollers, but which did their work perfectly, however, largely due to the splendidly-prepared fiber which the operator had to work upon.

There is little hand scutching in Belgium at the present day, although the scutching machines in general use are of the simplest form. Through the center of the mill is arranged a line of scutching berths before which, or rather in which, each operator stands. A single shaft runs through the structure from end to end, and at each berth is arranged a breaker-wheel, or simple iron frame (called a "wiper-ring"), to which is affixed the beating-blades, made of wood. These are about 3 feet long and 4 or 5 inches wide, there being ten blades to each wheel.

These arms or blades revolve at the rate of 300 to 400 revolutions per minute, dependent upon the quality of flax being cleaned, and move parallel with an upright partition of iron or wood, in which there is a wedged-shaped opening, the lower edge being horizontal and a little above the center of the shaft. The "boon," or broken woody portion of the straw, and the dust are carried back by the whipping action of the beaters or blades, as the broken flax is projected through the wedge-shaped opening, and falls into the deep space beneath. As a handful of flax is beaten or "buffed," first one end and then the other, a certain amount of fiber is whipped off, known as scutching tow, or in Irish scutch-mills as "codilla." This should not be confounded with the tow proper, which results from dressing or hackling the cleaned fiber, nor with the product of the western tow-mills in our own country.

When the handful of flax has been properly buffed, it is snapped or shaken and passed to a second man, who finishes the operation of cleaning on another wheel. Then it is ready for the hackler. But as these operations pertain rather to the manufacturer than the farmer, they need not be considered at greater length here. The agricultural operations of the flax industry, as conducted in Belgium, have been described thus minutely because they illustrate, or rather emphasize, to the fullest degree, the necessity of high cultivation and skill and careful management in the production of this fiber. And while it is hardly possible that our farmers will ever take such pains with, or put so much hard labor into, the growth of this crop, the Belgian practice affords many hints which may gradually lead us into a practice essentially American, which will in time produce good results, with an economy of time, from the employment of labor-saving appliances.

Through such practice, and from the fact that our laborers are quicker than the laborers of foreign countries, and more ingenious in inventing "short cuts " in the attainment of an object, we need not be so much at the mercy of the under-paid labor of Europe, after all.