FLAX. will immediately discover if it comes from minerals of that kind, by turning it into a dark colour, more or less tinged in proportion to the quantity of vitriol it contains.
The canal ought not to be under shade: which, besides keeping the sun from softening the water, might make part of the canal cooler than other parts, and so water the flax unequally.
The flax-raiser will observe, when the water is brought to a proper heat, that small plants will be rising quickly in it, numbers of small insects and reptiles will be generating there, and bubbles of air rising on the surface. If no such signs appear, the water must not be warm enough, or is otherwise unfit for flax.
Moss holes, when neither too deep nor too shallow, frequently answer well for watering flax, when the water is proper, as before described.
The proper season for watering flax is from the end of July to the end of August.
The advantage of watering flax as soon as possible after pulling, has been already mentioned.
The flax being sorted after rippling, as before mentioned, should next be put in beets, never larger than a man can grasp with both his hands, and tied very slack with a band of a few stalks. Dried rushes answer exceedingly well for binding flax, as they do not rot in the water, and may be dried and kept for use again.
The beets should be put into the canals slopewise, or half standing upon end, the root end uppermost. Upon the crop ends, when uppermost, there frequently breeds a deal of vermine, destructive of the flax, which is effectually prevented by putting the crop end downmost.
The whole flax in the canal ought to be carefully covered from the sun with divots; the grassy side of which should be next the flax, to keep it clean. If it is not thus covered, the sun will discolour the flax, though quite covered with water. If the divots are not weighty enough to keep the flax entirely under water, a few stones may be laid above them. But the flax should not be pressed to the bottom.
When the flax is sufficiently watered, it feels soft to the gripe, and the harle parts easily with the boon or show, which last is then become brittle, and looks whitish. When these signs are found, the flax should be taken out of the water, beet after beet; each gently rinsed in the water, to cleanse it of the nastiness which has gathered about it in the canal; and as the lint is then very tender, and the beet slackly tied, it must be carefully and gently handled.
Great care ought to be taken that no part be overdone; and as the coarsest waters soonest, if different kinds be mixed together, a part will be rotted, when the rest is not sufficiently watered.
When lint taken out of the canal is not found sufficiently watered, it may be laid in a heap for 12, 18, or 24 hours, which will have an effect like more watering; but this operation is nice, and may prove dangerous in unskilful hands.
After the flax is taken out of the canal, fresh lint should not be put a second time into it, until the former water be run off, and the canal cleaned, and supplied with fresh water.