FLAX. The utmost care must be taken to preserve the lint entire or unbroken; for this reason they beat off the seed with a round mell or bittle.
The most proper ground is summer fallow, or after potatoes or lea; if possible near a wood, to prevent the expense of carrying brush.
As soon as the seed is off, if you intend to water it that season, it must be tied in bundles about as large as you can grasp with your two hands.
The water proper for it, is a very small rivulet or soft spring free of any mineral matter; taking care that no flood or foul water enters your pit; which must be at least five feet deep, about nine or ten broad at the top, and seven or eight at the bottom; the length will depend on the quantity of flax you have to water. A very small stripe of water, when clear, should always be running in and off from your pit when the lint is in it.
The pit ought to be made three or four months before it be used.
You must drive poles about four inches thick, with a hook inclining downwards, in this form 7, all along the sides of the pit, above five feet asunder. The hooks must be level with, or rather under, the surface of the water. A long pole, the whole length of the pit, must be fixed into these hooks on each side; and cross poles put under that, to keep the lint under water; but the cross poles are not used till the lint is put in. You must order it so, that all the lint should be three or four inches under water. You next bring your lint to the sides of the pit; then put your sheaves head to head, causing each to overlap the other about one-third, and take as many of these as make a bundle of two or two and a half feet broad, laying the one above the other, till it is about four or four and a half feet high; then you tie them together in the middle, and at each root end: after this you wrap your bundle in straw, and lay it in the water, putting the thin or broad side undermost, taking care that none of your lint touch the earth; after it is fully pressed under water, put in your cross poles to keep it under. The bundles ought to lie in the pit a foot separate from each other. This renders it easy to take out; for, if the bundles entangle, they will be too heavy to raise.
The time of watering depends so much upon the weather, and softness or hardness of the water, that it is impossible to fix any certain time. This must be left to the skill of the farmer. If the flax be intended for spinning yarn soft and fit for cambric, it ought to be spread upon short grass for four or five days before you put it into the water; but if for lawns, lace, or thread, it is best to dry it outright. In either case avoid as much as possible to let it get rain; as much rain blanches and washes out the oil, which is necessary to preserve the strength.
The great property of this flax is to be fine and long. Thick sowing raises all plants fine and slender; and when the ground is very rich, it forces them to a great length. Pulling green prevents that coarse hardness which flax has when let stand till it be full ripe, and gives it the fine silky property. The brushwood, when the flax springs up, catches it by the middle, and prevents it from lying down and rotting; infallible consequences of sowing thick upon rich ground. It likewise keeps it straight, moist, and soft at the roots;
and by keeping it warm, and shaded from the sun, greatly promotes its length. The keeping it from rain, heating, taking proper care of your water, preserves the colour, and prevents those bars in cloth so much complained of by bleachers.