The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-03-29
.ond Is +he same rude


4 and 10 to - yards long, it will be found
III some meadow swail or hillside hol-
! low, where it is allowed to fill with the
surface water, or where the water from
some tiny stream may be admitted; for
the water used in Housekeeping must be
soft, or at least free from lime and iron.
Flax-sheaves are laid in the Irish steep
pond butt to band, weighed down
with sod and stone, and allowed
to remain from eight ten days. Millions
of dollars have been wasted in efforts to
steep fax artifcially in watts; but nature
alone can properly attend to that The
steep-water, invaluable for enriching
soils, but wholly wasted here, can be
used but once. From it the sheaves are
carted to the ''spread ground'' Of graz
ing or mOwn-meadow land Here the
rush bands are removed and dried, and
the now sticky, dirty flax, held on the
left arm, and spread from left to right,
the loaded carts following Just outside
the rows. When the stepped fax is thus
drying, whole fax regions are given the
appearance of being laid with mammoth
carpeting in gray-brown rows woven
upon a ground of emerald green. Wet
weather endangers a ruinous secondary
fermentation; but a drying wind"
gives superb fiber. The fax IS now
lifted - with the same rush bands tied
again into beats" or sheaves; and is
then stocked" and capped" precisely
as grain is shocked" in American
fields. 1t is allowed to stand in the
''stook" few days for further touring"
and is finally stored in the cabin loft:
stacked with wonderful precision and
symmetry; or carried direct to the roar
ing ''seutch milln
1t is an interesting place around a
scutch mill. One will find from 300 TO
400 diminutive flax-stacks with prettily
matched roofs. The CHATTER and rush,
with the flying shives, remind one of
the pleasant old-fashioned American
''threshing- time 3" while here and there,
crowding the road, ranged between the
stacks, or OVERCOMING into near pad
docks, are great numbers of carts,
dragged here by ragged donkeys or rag
gered humans, awaiting their turn at
the mill, or room for storing and stack
ing their loads. The mill removes from
the fax the roots, the branches and
withered bolls-as the valuable seed is
all lost in Ireland the woody heart and
the tiinty outer sheath. Twenty-four
cents per stone fourteen pounds) of
marketable fibre is paid for the milling,
which is equally divided between mill
owner and laborers. The scutcher deity
manages to transform half of the farm
er's crop into waste" For this the
farmer is paid but twenty four cents
per l12 pounds. During the rest of the
season the scutcher works over the
waste into what is commercially
called ''rescutched tow, " selling the same
for about 500 per ton. The fibre comes
from the 'breakers" of the scutch mill
in strikes of one and one-half pounds
weight; and these are tied with a twist
of flax into ''stone" bundles; and the
Irish taX-farmer with his little crop and
big family, all piled upon one grooming
cart, trundle Off to the market, where
after great bullying by the flax factor, or
buyer, he may receive six shillings per
stone for his trifing product; and when
the seed, farm labor, and scutching are
paid for, fate has been most kind to him
II he has enough remaining to pay his
rent and keep the emergency men, the
battering-ram and the horrible actually
of eviction from his ever comfortless
door Washington Star.