Manual of flax culture, comprising full information on the cultivation, management, and marketing of the crop . is mowed byhand, or with a mower, and the stalks are notkept straight, it is called tangled flax. My ownpractice, which coincides with that of other far-mers accustomed to raise flax, has been to cut itas close to the ground as possible, and cure it,rake it, cock it, and stack it, or put it in a mowjust as if it were hay. When it is mowed withscythes, let it remain about one day in the swac^and then turn it over. As soon as it appears suL-ficiently cured, rake it into bunches with ii
Manual of flax culture, comprising full information on the cultivation, management, and marketing of the crop . is mowed byhand, or with a mower, and the stalks are notkept straight, it is called tangled flax. My ownpractice, which coincides with that of other far-mers accustomed to raise flax, has been to cut itas close to the ground as possible, and cure it,rake it, cock it, and stack it, or put it in a mowjust as if it were hay. When it is mowed withscythes, let it remain about one day in the swac^and then turn it over. As soon as it appears suL-ficiently cured, rake it into bunches with iiand oihorse rakes. If the weather is favcrable, iCt itremain in bunches about as large as a man oaupitch at one forkful. When flax is managed inthis way, we prefer to put it in the barn, in pre^ference to stacking it. When it is stacked, how-ever, the top of the stack should be built sloping,instead of pointed like a roof, and covered withsound boards, or with canvass, as a stack of tan-gled flax will not turn rain so well as hay. Whenthe flax is to be cut with a reaper, and it is de- 12 FLAX CULTURE. Birable to keep the stalks straight, we put on theplatform as for reaping grain, fork off the flax ingavels, and let them be set on the but-ends, assoon as cut, as illustratedby fig. 12, which repre-eents a gavel of flax plac-ed on tlie end. Some-times the flax is so longand heavy that it will notbe practicable to rake, orfork it off, while the reaperis in motion. In such acase, as soon as enoughfor a gavel has been cut, Fig. .stop the machine, remove it with the hand, set iton the buts, and let another hand straighten it little longer time will be required, if the reaperis stopped for every gavel, but the work will bedone enough better to compensate for the extracare, and time will be gained in the end. Threshing Flax.—When flax is bound insmall sheaves, we sometimes take a bundle in bothhands and strike the heads on a large stone, oron a plow turned upsid
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1883
