Chapter XVIII: Part 18

_Manufacture._--That flax was extensively cultivated and was regarded as of much importance at a very early period in the world's history there is abundant testimony. Especially in ancient Egypt the fibre occupied a most important place, linen having been there not only generally worn by all classes, but it was the only material the priestly order was permitted to wear, while it was most extensively used as wrappings for embalmed bodies and for general purposes. In the Old Testament we are told that Pharaoh arrayed Joseph "in vestures of fine linen" (Gen. xlii. 42), and among the plagues of Egypt that of hail destroyed the flax and barley crops, "for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled" (Exod. ix. 31). Further, numerous pictorial representations of flax culture and preparation exist to the present day on the walls of tombs and in Egypt. Sir J. G. Wilkinson in his description of ancient Egypt shows clearly the great antiquity of the ordinary processes of preparing flax. "At Beni Hassan," he says, "the mode of cultivating the plant, in the same square beds now met with throughout Egypt (much resembling our salt pans), the process of beating the stalks and making them into ropes, and the manufacture of a piece of cloth are distinctly pointed out." The preparation of the fibre as conducted in Egypt is illustrated by Pliny, who says: "The stalks themselves are immersed in water, warmed by the heat of the sun, and are kept down by weights placed upon them, for nothing is lighter than flax. The membrane, or rind, becoming loose is a sign of their being sufficiently macerated. They are then taken out and repeatedly turned over in the sun until perfectly dried, and afterwards beaten by mallets on stone slabs. That which is nearest the rind is called _stupa_ ['tow'], inferior to the inner fibres, and fit only for the wicks of lamps. It is combed out with iron hooks until the rind is all removed. The inner part is of a whiter and finer quality. Men are not ashamed to prepare it" (Pliny, _N.H._ xix. 1). For many ages, even down to the early part of the 14th century, Egyptian flax occupied the foremost place in the commercial world, being sent into all regions with which open intercourse was maintained. Among Western nations it was, without any competitor, the most important of all vegetable fibres till towards the close of the 18th century, when, after a brief struggle, cotton took its place as the supreme vegetable fibre of commerce.

Flax prospers most when grown upon land of firm texture resting upon a moist subsoil. It does well to succeed oats or potatoes, as it requires the soil to be in fresh condition without being too rich. Lands newly broken up from pasture suit it well, as these are generally freer from weeds than those that have been long under tillage. It is usually inexpedient to apply manure directly to the flax crop, as the tendency of this is to produce over-luxuriance, and thereby to mar the quality of the fibre, on which its value chiefly depends. For the same reason it must be thickly seeded, the effect of this being to produce tall, slender stems, free from branches. The land, having been ploughed in autumn, is prepared for sowing by working it with the grubber, harrow and roller, until a fine tilth is obtained. On the smooth surface the seed is sown broadcast by hand or machine, at the rate of 3 bushels per acre, and covered in the same manner as clover seeds. It is advisable immediately to hand-rake it with common hay-rakes, and thus to remove all stones and clods, and to secure a uniform close cover of plants. When these are about 2 to 3 in. long the crop must be carefully hand-weeded. This is a tedious and expensive process, and hence the importance of sowing the crop on land as free as possible from weeds of all kinds. The weeders, faces to the wind, move slowly on hands and knees, and should remove every vestige of weed in order that the flax plants may receive the full benefit of the land. When flax is cultivated primarily on account of the fibre, the crop ought to be pulled before the capsules are quite ripe, when they are just beginning to change from a green to a pale-brown colour, and when the stalks of the plant have become yellow throughout about two-thirds of their height.

The various operations through which the crop passes from this point till flax ready for the market is produced are--(1) Pulling, (2) Rippling, (3) Retting, (4) Drying, (5) Rolling, (6) Scutching.

_Pulling_ and _rippling_ may be dismissed very briefly. Flax is always pulled up by the root, and under no circumstances is it cut or shorn like cereal crops. The pulling ought to be done in dry clear weather; and care is to be taken in this, as in all the subsequent operations, to keep the root-ends even and the stalks parallel. At the same time it is desirable to have, as far as possible, stalks of equal length together,--all these conditions having considerable influence on the quality and appearance of the finished sample. As a general rule the removal of the "bolls" or capsules by the process of rippling immediately follows the pulling, the operation being performed in the field; but under some systems of cultivation, as, for example, the Courtrai method, alluded to below, the crop is made up into sheaves, dried and stacked, and is only boiled and retted in the early part of the next ensuing season. The best rippler, or apparatus for separating the seed capsules from the branches, consists of a kind of comb having, set in a wooden frame, iron teeth made of round-rod iron 3/16ths of an inch asunder at the bottom, and half an inch at the top, and 18 in. long, to allow a sufficient spring, and save much breaking of flax. The points should begin to taper 3 in, from the top. A sheet or other cover being spread on the field, the apparatus is placed in the middle of it, and two ripplers sitting opposite each other, with the machine between them, work at the same time. It is unadvisable to ripple the flax so severely as to break or tear the delicate fibres at the upper part of the stem. The two valuable commercial products of the flax plant, the seeds and the stalk, are separated at this point. We have here to do with the latter only.

_Retting_ or _rotting_ is an operation of the greatest importance, and one in connexion with which in recent years numerous experiments have been made, and many projects and processes put forth, with the view of remedying the defects of the primitive system or altogether supplanting it. From the earliest times two leading processes of retting have been practised, termed respectively water-retting and dew-retting; and as no method has yet been introduced which satisfactorily supersedes these operations, they will first be described.

_Water-retting._--For this--the process by which flax is generally prepared--pure soft water, free from iron and other materials which might colour the fibre, is essential. Any water much impregnated with lime is also specially objectionable. The dams or ponds in which the operation is conducted are of variable size, and usually between 4 and 5 ft. in depth. The rippled stalks are tied in small bundles and packed, roots downwards, in the dams till they are quite full; over the top of the upper layer is placed a stratum of rushes and straw, or sods with the grassy side downwards, and above all stones of sufficient weight to keep the flax submerged. Under favourable circumstances a process of fermentation should immediately be set up, which soon makes itself manifest by the evolution of gaseous bubbles. After a few days the fermentation subsides; and generally in from ten days to two weeks the process ought to be complete. The exact time, however, depends upon the weather and upon the particular kind of water in which the flax is immersed. The immersion itself is a simple matter; the difficulty lies in deciding when the process is complete. If allowed to remain under water too long, the fibre is weakened by what is termed "over-retting," a condition which increases the amount of codilla in the scutching process; whilst "under-retting" leaves part of the gummy or resinous matter in the material, which hinders the subsequent process of manufacture. As the steeping is such a critical operation, it is essential that the stalks be frequently examined and tested as the process nears completion. When it is found that the fibre separates readily from the woody "shove" or core, the beets or small bundles are ready for removing from the dams. It is drained, and then spread, evenly and equally, over a grassy meadow to dry. The drying, which takes from a week to a fortnight, must be uniform, so that all the fibres may spin equally well. To secure this uniformity, it is necessary to turn the material over several times during the process. It is ready for gathering when the core cracks and separates easily from the fibre. At this point advantage is taken of fine dry weather to gather up the flax, which is now ready for scutching, but the fibre is improved by stooking and stacking it for some time before it is taken to the scutching mill.

_Dew-retting_ is the process by which all the Archangel flax and a large portion of that sent out from St Petersburg are prepared. By this method the operation of steeping is entirely dispensed with, and the flax is, immediately after pulling, spread on the grass where it is under the influence of air, sunlight, night-dews and rain. The process is tedious, the resulting fibre is brown in colour, and it is said to be peculiarly liable to undergo heating (probably owing to the soft heavy quality of the flax) if exposed to moisture and kept close packed with little access of air. Archangel flax is, however, peculiarly soft and silky in structure, although in all probability water-retting would result in a fibre as good or even better in quality.

The theory of retting, according to the investigations of J. Kolb, is that a peculiar fermentation is set up under the influence of heat and moisture, resulting in a change of the intercellular substance--pectose or an analogue of that body--into pectin and pectic acid. The former, being soluble, is left in the water; but the latter, an insoluble body, is in part attached to the fibres, from which it is only separated by changing into soluble metapectic acid under the action of hot alkaline ley in the subsequent process of bleaching.

To a large extent retting continues to be conducted in the primitive fashions above described, although numerous and persistent attempts have been made to improve upon it, or to avoid the process altogether. The uniform result of all experiments has only been to demonstrate the scientific soundness of the ordinary process of water-retting, and all the proposed improvements of recent times seek to obviate the tediousness, difficulties and uncertainties of the process as carried on in the open air. In the early part of the 19th century much attention was bestowed, especially in Ireland, on a process invented by Mr James Lee. He proposed to separate the fibre by purely mechanical means without any retting whatever; but after the Irish Linen Board had expended many thousands of pounds and much time in making experiments and in erecting his machinery, his entire scheme ended in complete failure. About the year 1851 Chevalier Claussen sought to revive a process of "cottonizing" flax--a method of proceeding which had been suggested three-quarters of a century earlier. Claussen's process consisted in steeping flax fibre or tow for twenty-four hours in a weak solution of caustic soda, next boiling it for about two hours in a similar solution, and then saturating it in a solution containing 5% of carbonate of soda, after which it was immersed in a vat containing water acidulated with 1/2% of sulphuric acid. The action of the acid on the carbonate of soda with which the fibre was impregnated caused the fibre to split up into a fine cotton-like mass, which it was intended to manufacture in the same manner as cotton. A process to turn good flax into bad cotton had, however, on the face of it, not much to recommend it to public acceptance; and Claussen's process therefore remains only as an interesting and suggestive experiment.

The only modification of water-retting which has hitherto endured the test of prolonged experiment, and taken a firm position as a distinct improvement, is the warm-water retting patented in England in 1846 by an American, Robert B. Schenck. For open pools and dams Schenck substitutes large wooden vats under cover, into which the flax is tightly packed in an upright position. The water admitted into the tanks is raised to and maintained at a temperature of from 75 deg. to 95 deg. F. during the whole time the flax is in steep. In a short time a brisk fermentation is set up, gases at first of pleasant odour, but subsequently becoming very repulsive, being evolved, and producing a frothy scum over the surface of the water. The whole process occupies only from 50 to 60 hours. A still further improvement, due to Mr Pownall, comes into operation at this point, which consists of immediately passing the stalks as they are taken out of the vats between heavy rollers over which a stream of pure water is kept flowing. By this means, not only is all the slimy glutinous adherent matter thoroughly separated, but the subsequent processes of breaking and scutching are much facilitated.

A process of retting by steam was introduced by W. Watt of Glasgow in 1852, and subsequently modified and improved by J. Buchanan. The system possessed the advantages of rapidity, being completed in about ten hours, and freedom from any noxious odour; but it yielded only a harsh, ill-spinning fibre, and consequently failed to meet the sanguine expectations of its promoters.

In connexion with improvements in retting, Mr Michael Andrews, secretary of the Belfast Flax Supply Association, made some suggestions and experiments which deserve close attention. In a paper contributed to the International Flax Congress at Vienna in 1873 he entered into details regarding an experimental rettery he had formed, with the view of imitating by artificial means the best results obtained by the ordinary methods. In brief, Mr Andrews' method consists in introducing water at the proper temperature into the retting vat, and maintaining that temperature by keeping the air of the chamber at a proper degree of heat. By this means the flax is kept at a uniform temperature with great certainty, since even should the heat of the air vary considerably through neglect, the water in the vat only by slow degrees follows such fluctuations. "It may be remarked," says Mr Andrews, "that the superiority claimed for this method of retting flax over what is known as the 'hot-water steeping' is uniformity of temperature; in fact the experiments have demonstrated that an absolute control can be exercised over the means adopted to produce the artificial climate in which the vats containing the flax are situated."

Several other attempts have been made with a view of obtaining a quick and practical method of retting flax. The one by Messrs Doumer and Deswarte appears to have been well received in France, but in Ireland the invention of Messrs Loppens and Deswarte has recently received the most attention. The apparatus consists of a tank with two chambers, the partition being perforated. The flax is placed in the upper chamber and covered by two sets of rods or beams at right angles to each other. Fresh water is allowed to enter the lower chamber immediately under the perforated partition. As the tank fills, the water enters the upper chamber and carries with it the flax and the beams, the latter being prevented from rising too high. The soluble substances are dissolved by the water, and the liquid thus formed being heavier than water, sinks to the bottom of the tank where it is allowed to escape through an outlet. By this arrangement the flax is almost continually immersed in fresh water, a condition which hastens the retting. The flow of the liquids, in and out, can be so arranged that the motion is very slow, and hence the liquids of different densities do not mix. When the operation is completed, the whole of the water is run off, and the flax remains on the perforated floor, where it drains thoroughly before being removed to dry.

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, and the Belfast Flax Supply Association, have jointly made some experiments with this method, and the following extract from the Association's report for 1905 shows the success which attended their efforts:--

"By desire of the department (which has taken up the position of an
impartial critic of the experiment) a quantity of flax straw was
divided into two equal lots. One part was retted at Millisle by the
patent-system of Loppens and Deswarte; the other was sent to Courtrai
and steeped in the Lys. Both lots when retted and scutched were
examined by an inspector of the department and by several flax
spinners. That which was retted at Millisle was pronounced superior to
the other"....

"To summarise results up to date--

1. It has been proved that flax can be thoroughly dried in the field
in Ireland.

2. That the seed can be saved, and is of first quality.

3. That the system of retting (Loppens and Deswarte's patent) is at
least equal to the Lys, as to quality and yield of fibre produced."

Since these results appear to be satisfactory, it is natural to expect further attempts with the same object of supplanting the ordinary steeping. A really good chemical, mechanical or other method would probably be the means of reviving the flax industry in the remote parts of the British Isles.

_Scutching_ is the process by which the fibre is freed from its woody core and rendered fit for the market. For ordinary water-retted flax two operations are required, first breaking and then scutching, and these are done either by hand labour or by means of small scutching or lint mills, driven either by water or steam power. Hand labour, aided by simple implements, is still much used in continental countries; also in some parts of Ireland where labour is cheap or when very fine material is desired; but the use of scutching mills is now very general, these being more economical. The breaking is done by passing the stalks between grooved or fluted rollers of different pitches; these rollers, of which there may be from 5 to 7 pairs, are sometimes arranged to work alternately forwards and backwards in order to thoroughly break the woody material or "boon" of the straw, while the broken "shoves" are beaten out by suspending the fibre in a machine fitted with a series of revolving blades, which, striking violently against the flax, shake out the bruised and broken woody cores. A great many modified scutching machines and processes have been proposed and introduced with the view of promoting economy of labour and improving the turn-out of fibre, both in respect of cleanness and in producing the least proportion of codilla or scutching tow.

The celebrated Courtrai flax of Belgium is the most valuable staple in the market, on account of its fineness, strength and particularly bright colour. There the flax is dried in the field, and housed or stacked during the winter succeeding its growth, and in the spring of the following year it is retted in crates sunk in the sluggish waters of the river Lys. After the process has proceeded a certain length, the crates are withdrawn, and the sheaves taken out and stooked. It is thereafter once more tied up, placed in the crates, and sunk in the river to complete the retting process; but this double steeping is not invariably practised. When finally taken out, it is unloosed and put up in cones, instead of being grassed, and when quite dry it is stored for some time previous to undergoing the operation of scutching. In all operations the greatest care is taken, and the cultivators being peculiarly favoured as to soil, climate and water, Courtrai flax is a staple of unapproached excellence.

An experiment made by Professor Hodges of Belfast on 7770 lb. of
air-dried flax yielded the following results. By rippling he separated
1946 lb. of bolls which yielded 910 lb. of seed. The 5824 lb. (52 cwt.)
of flax straw remaining lost in steeping 13 cwt., leaving 39 cwt. of
retted stalks, and from that 6 cwt. 1 qr. 2 lb. (702 lb.) of finished
flax was procured. Thus the weight of the fibre was equal to about 9%
of the dried flax with the bolls, 12% of the boiled straw, and over
16% of the retted straw. One hundred tons treated by Schenck's method
gave 33 tons bolls, with 27.50 tons of loss in steeping; 32.13 tons
were separated in scutching, leaving 5.90 tons of finished fibre, with
1.47 tons of tow and pluckings. The following analysis of two
varieties of heckled Belgian flax is by Dr Hugo Muller (Hoffmann's
_Berichte uber die Entwickelung der chemischen Industrie_):--

Ash 0.70 1.32
Water 8.65 10.70
Extractive matter 3.65 6.02
Fat and wax 2.39 2.37
Cellulose 82.57 71.50
Intercellular substance and pectose bodies 2.74 9.41

According to the determinations of Julius Wiesner (_Die Rohstoffe des
Pflanzenreiches_), the fibre ranges in length from 20 to 140
centimetres, the length of the individual cells being from 2.0 to 4.0
millimetres, and the limits of breadth between 0.012 and 0.025 mm.,
the average being 0.016 mm.

Among the circumstances which have retarded improvement both in the growing and preparing of flax, the fact that, till comparatively recent times, the whole industry was conducted only on a domestic scale has had much influence. At no very remote date it was the practice in Scotland for every small farmer and cotter not only to grow "lint" or flax in small patches, but to have it retted, scutched, cleaned, spun, woven, bleached and finished entirely within the limits of his own premises, and all by members or dependents of the family. The same practice obtained and still largely prevails in other countries. Thus the flax industry was long kept away from the most powerful motives to apply to it labour-saving devices, and apart from the influence of scientific inquiry for the improvement of methods and processes. As cotton came to the front, just at the time when machine-spinning and power-loom weaving were being introduced, the result was that in many localities where flax crops had been grown for ages, the culture gradually drooped and ultimately ceased. The linen manufacture by degrees ceased to be a domestic industry, and began to centre in and become the characteristic factory employment of special localities, which depended, however, for their supply of raw material primarily on the operations of small growers, working, for the most part, on the poorer districts of remote thinly populated countries. The cultivation of the plant and the preparation of the fibre have therefore, even at the present day, not come under the influence (except in certain favoured localities) of scientific knowledge and experience.

_Cultivation._--The approximate number of acres (1905) under cultivation in the principal flax-growing countries is as follows:--

Russia 3,500,000 acres.
Caucasia 450,000 "
Austria 175,000 "
Italy 120,000 "
Poland 95,000 "
Rumania 80,000 "
Germany 75,000 "
France 65,000 "
Belgium 53,000 "
Hungary 50,000 "
Ireland 46,000 "
Holland 38,000 "

Although the amount grown in Russia exceeds considerably the combined quantity grown in the rest of the above-mentioned countries, the quality of the fibre is inferior. The fibre is cultivated in the Russian provinces of Archangel, Courland, Esthonia, Kostroma, Livonia, Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Vyatka, Vitebsk, Vologda and Yaroslav or Jaroslav, while the bulk of the material is exported through the Baltic ports. Riga and St Petersburg (including Cronstadt) are the principal ports, but flax is also exported from Revel, Windau, Pernau, Libau, Narva and Konigsberg. Sometimes it is exported from Archangel, but this port is frost-bound for a great period of the year; moreover, most of the districts are nearer to the Baltic.

_The following Prices, taken from the Dundee Year Books, show the
Change in Price of a few well-known Varieties._

+-----------------+-------------+-------------+------------+------+--------+------+-----+------+------+------+
| | Dec. | Dec. | Dec. | Dec.| Dec. | Dec.| Dec.| Dec.| Dec.| Dec.|
| | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | 1900.| 1901. | 1902.|1903.| 1904.| 1905.| 1906.|
| +-------------+-------------+------------+------+--------+------+-----+------+------+------+
|Riga-- | L | L | L | L | L | L | L | L | L | L |
| SPK | 23-1/2 | 21 to 22 | 28 to 32 | 42 |28 to 32| 32 | 39 | 33 | 35 | 32 |
| XHDX | 27 | 26-1/2 |32-1/2 to 33|43-1/2| 34 | 35 | 42 | 34 | 36 | 33 |
| W |16 to 16-1/4 |15-1/2 to 16 |22-1/2 to 24| 31 |18 to 19| 22 | 29 | 23 | 24 | 24 |
|St Petersburg-- | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bajetsky | 28 to 29 | 26 to 27 |32 to 32-1/2| 46 | 37 | 33 | 49 | 36 | 42 | 38 |
| Jaropol | 24 to 25 |23 to 23-1/2 | 30 | 42 | 32 | 30 | 42 | 33 | 35 | 33 |
|Tows-- | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mologin |24 to 24-1/4 |23 to 23-1/2 |24-1/2 to 25|31-1/2| 32 | 32 | 42 | 32 | 34 |32-1/2|
| Novgorod |23-1/2 to 24 | 23[1] |26 to 26-1/2| 33 | 31-1/2 |32-1/2| 41 |31-1/2| 37 |34-1/2|
| | [1] | | [1] | | | | | | | |
|Archangel-- | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1/2 and 1/2 tow| 25 |24 to 24-1/2| 26 to 27 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 41 |31-1/2|32-1/2| 31 |
| 2nd Codilla | 25 | 24 to 24 |25-1/2 to 26| 32 | 31 | 32 | 41 | 32 | 33 | 31 |
+-----------------+-------------+-------------+------------+------+--------+------+-----+------+------+------+

The raw flax is almost invariably known by the same name as the district in which it is grown, and it is further classified by special marks. The following names amongst others are given to the fibre:--Archangel, Bajetsky, Courish, Dorpat, Drogobusher, Dunaberg, Fabrichnoi, Fellin, Gjatsk, Glazoff, Griazourtz, Iwashkower, Jaransk, Janowitz, Jaropol, Jaroslav, Kama, Kashin, Konigsberg, Kostroma, Kotelnitch, Kowns, Krasnoholm, Kurland (Courland), Latischki, Livonian Crowns, Malmuish, Marienberg, Mochenetz, Mologin, Newel, Nikolsky, Nolinsk, Novgorod, Opotchka, Ostroff, Ostrow, Otbornoy, Ouglitch, Pernau, Pskoff, Revel, Riga, Rjeff, St Petersburg, Seretz, Slanitz, Slobodskoi, Smolensk, Sytcheffka, Taroslav. Tchesna, Totma, Twer, Ustjuga, Viatka, Vishni, Vologda, Werro, Wiasma, Witebsk.

These names indicate the particular district in which the flax has been grown, but it is more general to group the material into classes such as Livonian Crowns, Rija Crowns, Hoffs, Wracks, Drieband, Zins, Ristens, Pernau, Archangel, &c.

The quotations for the various kinds of flaxes are made with one or
other special mark termed a base mark; this usually, but not
necessarily, indicates the lowest quality. The September-October 1906
quotations appeared as under:--

Livonian basis K L26 to L27 per ton,
Hoffs " HD L21 to L22 "
Pernau. " D L28 to L28: 10 "
Dorpat " D L32 to L32: 10 "
cleaned.

It will, of course, be understood that the base mark is subject to
variation, the ruling factors being the amount of crop, quality and
demand.

The marks in the Crown flaxes have the following signification:--

K means Crown and is usually the base mark.
H " Light and represents a rise of about L1
P " Picked " " " L3
G " Grey " " " L3
S " Superior " " " L4
W " White " " " L4
Z " Zins " " " L10

Each additional mark means a rise in the price, but it must be
understood that it is quite possible for a quality denoted by two
letters to be more valuable than one indicated by three or more, since
every mark has not the same value.

If we take L25 as the value of the base mark, the value per ton for
the different groups would be:--

K L25 HSPK L33
HK L26 GSPK L35
PK L28 WSPK L36
HPK L29 ZK L35
GPK L31 HZK L36
SPK L32 GZK L38, &c.

The Hoffs flaxes are reckoned in a similar way. Here H is for Hoffs, D
for Drieband, P for picked, F for fine, S for superior, and R for
Risten. In addition to these marks, an X may appear before, after or
in both places. With L20 as base mark we have:--

HD L20 per ton.
PHD L23 " "
FPHD L26 " "
SFPHD L29 " "
XHDX L32 " "
XRX L35 " "

Of the lower qualities of Riga flax the following may be named;

W, Wrack flax. PD, Picked Dreiband flax.
PW, Picked wrack flax. LD, Livonian Dreiband.
WPW, White picked wrack. PLD, Picked Livonian Dreiband.
GPW, Grey picked wrack flax. SD, Slanitz Dreiband.
D, Dreiband (Threeband). PSD, Picked Slanitz Dreiband.

The last-named (SD and PSD) are dew-retted qualities shipped from Riga
either as Lithuanian Slanitz, Wellish Slanitz or Wiasma Slanitz,
showing from what district they come, as there are differences in the
quality of the produce of each district. The lowest quality of Riga
flax is marked DW, meaning Dreiband Wrack.

Another Russian port from which a large quantity of flax is imported
is Pernau, where the marks in use are comparatively few. The leading
marks are:--

LOD, indicating Low Ordinary Dreiband (Threeband).
OD, " Ordinary Dreiband.
D, " Dreiband.
HD, " Light Dreiband.
R, " Risten.
G, " Cut.
M, " Marienburg.

Pernau flax is shipped as Livonian and Fellin sorts, the latter being
the best.

Both dew-retted and water-retted flax are exported from St Petersburg,
the dew-retted or Slanitz flax being marked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
Crown, also Zebrack No. 1 and Zebrack No. 2, while all the Archangel
flax is dew-retted.

Some idea of the extent of the Russian flax trade may be gathered from
the fact that 233,000 tons were exported in 1905. Out of this quantity
a little over 53,000 tons came to the United Kingdom. The Chief
British ports for the landing of flax are:--Belfast, Dundee, Leith,
Montrose, London and Arbroath, the two former being the chief centres
of the flax industry.

The following table, taken from the annual report of the Belfast Flax
Supply Association, shows the quantities received from all sources
into the different parts of the United Kingdom:--

+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
| | Imports to | Imports to | Imports to |
| Year. | the United | Ireland. | England and |
| | Kingdom. | | Scotland. |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| 1895 | 102,622 | 33,506 | 67,116 |
| 1896 | 95,199 | 36,650 | 58,549 |
| 1897 | 98,802 | 37,715 | 61,087 |
| 1898 | 97,253 | 34,440 | 62,813 |
| 1899 | 99,052 | 40,145 | 58,907 |
| 1900 | 71,586 | 31,563 | 40,023 |
| 1901 | 75,565 | 28,785 | 46,780 |
| 1902 | 73,611 | 29,727 | 43,884 |
| 1903 | 94,701 | 38,168 | 56,533 |
| 1904 | 74,917 | 33,024 | 41,893 |
| 1905 | 90,098 | 40,063 | 50,035 |
+-------+------------+------------+-------------+

The extent of flax cultivation in Ireland is considerable, but the
acreage has been gradually diminishing during late years. In 1864 it
reached the maximum, 301,693 acres; next year it fell to 251,433.
After 1869 it declined, there being 229,252 acres in flax crop that
year, and only 122,003 in 1872. From this year to 1889 it fluctuated
considerably, reaching 157,534 acres in 1880 and dropping to 89,225
acres in 1884. Then for five successive years the acreage was above
108,000. From 1890 to 1905 it only once reached 100,000, while the
average in 1903, 1904 and 1905 was a little over 45,000 acres.
(T. Wo.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] 8 and 2, which means 80% of one quality and 20% of another.
Sometimes other proportions obtain, while it is not unusual to have
quotations for flaxes containing four different kinds.

FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1826), English sculptor and draughtsman, was born on the 6th of July 1755, during a temporary residence of his parents at York. The name John was hereditary in the family, having been borne by his father after a forefather who, according to the family tradition, had fought on the side of parliament at Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer, or both, in Buckinghamshire. John Flaxman, the father of the sculptor, carried on with repute the trade of a moulder and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden, London. His wife's maiden name was See, and John was their second son. Within six months of his birth the family returned to London, and in his father's back shop he spent an ailing childhood. His figure was high-shouldered and weakly, the head very large for the body. His mother having died about his tenth year, his father took a second wife, of whom all we know is that her maiden name was Gordon, and that she proved a thrifty housekeeper and kind stepmother. Of regular schooling the boy must have had some, since he is reputed as having remembered in after life the tyranny of some pedagogue of his youth; but his principal education he picked up for himself at home. He early took delight in drawing and modelling from his father's stock-in-trade, and early endeavoured to understand those counterfeits of classic art by the light of translations from classic literature.

Customers of his father took a fancy to the child, and helped him with books, advice, and presently with commissions. The two special encouragers of his youth were the painter Romney, and a cultivated clergyman, Mr Mathew, with his wife, in whose house in Rathbone Place the young Flaxman used to meet the best "blue-stocking" society of those days, and, among associates of his own age, the artists Blake and Stothard, who became his closest friends. Before this he had begun to work with precocious success in clay as well as in pencil. At twelve years old he won the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medal, and became a public exhibitor in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists; at fifteen he won a second prize from the Society of Arts and began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, then in the second year of its existence. In the same year, 1770, he entered as an Academy student and won the silver medal. But all these successes were followed by a discomfiture. In the competition for the gold medal of the Academy in 1772, Flaxman, who had made sure of victory, was defeated, the prize being adjudged by the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to another competitor named Engleheart. But this reverse proved no discouragement, and indeed seemed to have had a wholesome effect in curing the successful lad of a tendency to conceit and self-sufficiency which made Thomas Wedgwood say of him in 1775: "It is but a few years since he was a most supreme coxcomb."

He continued to ply his art diligently, both as a student in the schools and as an exhibitor in the galleries of the Academy, occasionally also attempting diversions into the sister art of painting. To the Academy he contributed a wax model of Neptune (1770); four portrait models in wax (1771); a terracotta bust, a wax figure of a child, a figure of History (1772); a figure of Comedy, and a relief of a Vestal (1773). During these years he received a commission from a friend of the Mathew family, for a statue of Alexander. But by heroic and ideal work of this class he could, of course, make no regular livelihood. The means of such a livelihood, however, presented themselves in his twentieth year, when he first received employment from Josiah Wedgwood and his partner Bentley, as a modeller of classic and domestic friezes, plaques, ornamental vessels and medallion portraits, in those varieties of "jasper" and "basalt" ware which earned in their day so great a reputation for the manufacturers who had conceived and perfected the invention. In the same year, 1775, John Flaxman the elder moved from New Street, Covent Garden, to a more commodious house in the Strand (No. 420). For twelve years, from his twentieth to his thirty-second (1775-1787), Flaxman subsisted chiefly by his work for the firm of Wedgwood. It may be urged, of the minute refinements of figure outline and modelling which these manufacturers aimed at in their ware, that they were not the qualities best suited to such a material; or it may be regretted that the gifts of an artist like Flaxman should have been spent so long upon such a minor and half-mechanical art of household decoration; but the beauty of the product it would be idle to deny, or the value of the training which the sculptor by this practice acquired in the delicacies and severities of modelling in low relief and on a minute scale.

By 1780 Flaxman had begun to earn something in another branch of his profession, which was in the future to furnish his chief source of livelihood, viz. the sculpture of monuments for the dead. Three of the earliest of such monuments by his hand are those of Chatterton in the church of St Mary Redcliffe at Bristol (1780), of Mrs Morley in Gloucester cathedral (1784), and of the Rev. T. and Mrs Margaret Ball in the cathedral at Chichester (1785). During the rest of Flaxman's career memorial bas-reliefs of the same class occupied a principal part of his industry; they are to be found scattered in many churches throughout the length and breadth of England, and in them the finest qualities of his art are represented. The best are admirable for pathos and simplicity, and for the alliance of a truly Greek instinct for rhythmical design and composition with that spirit of domestic tenderness and innocence which is one of the secrets of the modern soul.

In 1782, being twenty-seven years old, Flaxman was married to Anne Denman, and had in her the best of helpmates until almost his life's end. She was a woman of attainments in letters and to some extent in art, and the devoted companion of her husband's fortunes and of his travels. They set up house at first in Wardour Street, and lived an industrious life, spending their summer holidays once and again in the house of the hospitable poet Hayley, at Eartham in Sussex. After five years, in 1787, they found themselves with means enough to travel, and set out for Rome, where they took up their quarters in the Via Felice. Records more numerous and more consecutive of Flaxman's residence in Italy exist in the shape of drawings and studies than in the shape of correspondence. He soon ceased modelling himself for Wedgwood, but continued to direct the work of other modellers employed for the manufacture at Rome. He had intended to return after a stay of a little more than two years, but was detained by a commission for a marble group of a Fury of Athamas, a commission attended in the sequel with circumstances of infinite trouble and annoyance, from the notorious Comte-Eveque, Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry. He did not, as things fell out, return until the summer of 1794, after an absence of seven years,--having in the meantime executed another ideal commission (a "Cephalus and Aurora") for Mr Hope, and having sent home models for several sepulchral monuments, including one in relief for the poet Collins in Chichester cathedral, and one in the round for Lord Mansfield in Westminster Abbey.

But what gained for Flaxman in this interval a general and European fame was not his work in sculpture proper, but those outline designs to the poets, in which he showed not only to what purpose he had made his own the principles of ancient design in vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, but also by what a natural affinity, better than all mere learning, he was bound to the ancients and belonged to them. The designs for the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ were commissioned by Mrs Hare Naylor; those for Dante by Mr Hope; those for Aeschylus by Lady Spencer; they were all engraved by Piroli, not without considerable loss of the finer and more sensitive qualities of Flaxman's own lines.

During their homeward journey the Flaxmans travelled through central and northern Italy. On their return they took a house, which they never afterwards left, in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square. Immediately afterwards we find the sculptor publishing a spirited protest against the scheme already entertained by the Directory, and carried out five years later by Napoleon, of equipping at Paris a vast central museum of art with the spoils of conquered Europe.

The record of Flaxman's life is henceforth an uneventful record of private affection and contentment, and of happy and tenacious industry, with reward not brilliant but sufficient, and repute not loud but loudest in the mouths of those whose praise was best worth having--Canova, Schlegel, Fuseli. He took for pupil a son of Hayley's, who presently afterwards sickened and died. In 1797 he was made an associate of the Royal Academy. Every year he exhibited work of one class or another: occasionally a public monument in the round, like those of Paoli (1798), or Captain Montague (1802) for Westminster Abbey, of Sir William Jones for St Mary's, Oxford (1797-1801), of Nelson or Howe for St Paul's; more constantly memorials for churches, with symbolic Acts of Mercy or illustrations of Scripture texts, both commonly in low relief [Miss Morley, Chertsey (1797), Miss Cromwell, Chichester (1800), Mrs Knight, Milton, Cambridge (1802), and many more]; and these pious labours he would vary from time to time with a classical piece like those of his earliest predilection. Soon after his election as associate, he published a scheme, half grandiose, half childish, for a monument to be erected on Greenwich Hill, in the shape of a Britannia 200 ft. high, in honour of the naval victories of his country. In 1800 he was elected full Academician. During the peace of Amiens he went to Paris to see the despoiled treasures collected there, but bore himself according to the spirit of protest that was in him. The next event which makes any mark in his life is his appointment to a chair specially created for him by the Royal Academy--the chair of Sculpture: this took place in 1810. We have ample evidence of his thoroughness and judiciousness as a teacher in the Academy schools, and his professorial lectures have been often reprinted. With many excellent observations, and with one singular merit--that of doing justice, as in those days justice was hardly ever done, to the sculpture of the medieval schools--these lectures lack point and felicity of expression, just as they are reported to have lacked fire in delivery, and are somewhat heavy reading. The most important works that occupied Flaxman in the years next following this appointment were the monument to Mrs Baring in Micheldever church, the richest of all his monuments in relief (1805-1811); that for the Worsley family at Campsall church, Yorkshire, which is the next richest; those to Sir Joshua Reynolds for St Paul's (1807), to Captain Webbe for India (1810); to Captains Walker and Beckett for Leeds (1811); to Lord Cornwallis for Prince of Wales's Island (1812); and to Sir John Moore for Glasgow (1813). At this time the antiquarian world was much occupied with the vexed question of the merits of the Elgin marbles, and Flaxman was one of those whose evidence before the parliamentary commission had most weight in favour of the purchase which was ultimately effected in 1816.

After his Roman period he produced for a good many years no outline designs for the engraver except three for Cowper's translations of the Latin poems of Milton (1810). Other sets of outline illustrations drawn about the same time, but not published, were one to the _Pilgrim's Progress_, and one to a Chinese tale in verse, called "The Casket," which he wrote to amuse his womenkind. In 1817 we find him returning to his old practice of classical outline illustrations and publishing the happiest of all his series in that kind, the designs to Hesiod, excellently engraved by the sympathetic hand of Blake. Immediately afterwards he was much engaged designing for the goldsmiths--a testimonial cup in honour of John Kemble, and following that, the great labour of the famous and beautiful (though quite un-Homeric) "Shield of Achilles." Almost at the same time he undertook a frieze of "Peace, Liberty and Plenty," for the duke of Bedford's sculpture gallery at Woburn, and an heroic group of Michael overthrowing Satan, for Lord Egremont's house at Petworth. His literary industry at the same time is shown by several articles on art and archaeology contributed to Rees's _Encyclopaedia_ (1819-1820).

In 1820 Mrs Flaxman died, after a first warning from paralysis six years earlier. Her younger sister, Maria Denman, and the sculptor's own sister,, Maria Flaxman, remained in his house, and his industry was scarcely at all relaxed. In 1822 he delivered at the Academy a lecture in memory of his old friend and generous fellow-craftsman, Canova, then lately dead; in 1823 he received from A.W. von Schlegel a visit of which that writer has left us the record. From an illness occurring soon after this he recovered sufficiently to resume both work and exhibition, but on the 3rd of December 1826 he caught cold in church, and died four days later, in his seventy-second year. Among a few intimate associates, he left a memory singularly dear; having been in companionship, although susceptible and obstinate when his religious creed--a devout Christianity with Swedenborgian admixtures--was crossed or slighted, yet in other things genial and sweet-tempered beyond most men, full of modesty and playfulness and withal of a homely dignity, a true friend and a kind master, a pure and blameless spirit.

Posterity will doubt whether it was the fault of Flaxman or of his age, which in England offered neither training nor much encouragement to a sculptor, that he is weakest when he is most ambitious, and most inspired when he makes the least effort; but so it is. Not merely does he fail when he seeks to illustrate the intensity of Dante, or to rival the tumultuousness of Michelangelo--to be intense or tumultuous he was never made; but he fails, it may almost be said, in proportion as his work is elaborate and far carried, and succeeds in proportion as it is partial and suggestive. Of his completed ideal sculptures, the "St Michael" at Petworth is the best, and is indeed admirably composed from all points of view; but it lacks fire and force, and it lacks the finer touches of the chisel; a little bas-relief like the diploma piece of the "Apollo" and "Marpessa" in the Royal Academy compares with it favourably. This is one of the very few things which he is recorded to have executed in the marble entirely with his own hand; ordinarily he entrusted the finishing work of the chisel to the Italian workmen in his employ, and was content with the smooth mechanical finish which they imitated from the Roman imitations (themselves often reworked at the Renaissance) of Greek originals. Of Flaxman's complicated monuments in the round, such as the three in Westminster Abbey and the four in St Paul's, there is scarcely one which has not something heavy and infelicitous in the arrangement, and something empty and unsatisfactory in the surface execution. But when we come to his simple monuments in relief, in these we find almost always a far finer quality. The truth is that he did not thoroughly understand composition on the great scale and in the round, but he thoroughly understood relief, and found scope in it for his remarkable gifts of harmonious design, and tender, grave and penetrating feeling. But if we would see even the happiest of his conceptions at their best, we must study them, not in the finished marble but rather in the casts from his studio sketches (marred though they have been by successive coats of paint intended for their protection) of which a comprehensive collection is preserved in the Flaxman gallery at University College And the same is true of his happiest efforts in the classical and poetical vein, like the well-known relief of "Pandora conveyed to Earth by Mercury." Nay, going farther back still among the rudiments and first conceptions of his art, we can realize the most essential charm of his genius in the study, not of his modelled work at all, but of his sketches in pen and wash on paper. Of these the principal public collections are at University College, in the British Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum; many others are dispersed in public and private cabinets. Every one knows the excellence of the engraved designs to Homer, Dante, Aeschylus and Hesiod, in all cases save when the designer aims at that which he cannot hit, the terrible or the grotesque. To know Flaxman at his best it is necessary to be acquainted not only with the original studies for such designs as these (which, with the exception of the Hesiod series, are far finer than the engravings), but still more with those almost innumerable studies from real life which he was continually producing with pen, tint or pencil. These are the most delightful and suggestive sculptor's notes in existence; in them it was his habit to set down the leading and expressive lines, and generally no more, of every group that struck his fancy. There are groups of Italy and London, groups of the parlour and the nursery, of the street, the garden and the gutter; and of each group the artist knows how to seize at once the structural and the spiritual secret, expressing happily the value and suggestiveness, for his art of sculpture, of the contacts, intervals, interlacements and balancings of the various figures in any given group, and not less happily the charm of the affections which link the figures together and inspire their gestures.

The materials for the life of Flaxman are scattered in various
biographical and other publications; the principal are the
following:--An anonymous sketch in the _European Magazine_ for 1823;
an anonymous "Brief Memoir," prefixed to _Flaxman's Lectures_ (ed.
1829, and reprinted in subsequent editions); the chapter in Allan
Cunningham's _Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters_, &c., vol.
iii.; notices in the _Life of Nollekens_, by John Thomas Smith; in the
_Life of Josiah Wedgwood_, by Miss G. Meteyard (London, 1865); in the
_Diaries and Reminiscences of H. Crabbe Robinson_ (London, 1869), the
latter an authority of great importance; in the _Lives_ of Stothard,
by Mrs Bray, of Constable, by Leslie, of Watson, by Dr Lonsdale, and
of Blake, by Messrs Gilchrist and Rossetti; a series of illustrated
essays, principally on the monumental sculpture of Flaxman, in the
_Art Journal_ for 1867 and 1868, by Mr G.F. Teniswood; _Essays in
English Art_, by Frederick Wedmore; _The Drawings of Flaxman, in 32
plates, with Descriptions, and an Introductory Essay on the Life and
Genius of Flaxman_, by Sidney Colvin (London, 1876); and the article
"Flaxman" in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. (S. C)

FLEA (0. Eng. _fleah_, or _flea_, cognate with _flee_, to run away from, to take flight), a name typically applied to _Pulex irritans_, a well-known blood-sucking insect-parasite of man and other mammals, remarkable for its powers of leaping, and nearly cosmopolitan. In ordinary language the name is used for any species of _Siphonaptera_ (otherwise known as _Aphaniptera_), which, though formerly regarded as a suborder of _Diptera_ (q.v.), are now considered to be a separate order of insects. All _Siphonaptera_, of which more than 100 species are known, are parasitic on mammals or birds. The majority of the species belong to the family _Pulicidae_, of which _P. irritans_ may be taken as the type; but the order also includes the _Sarcopsyllidae_, the females of which fix themselves firmly to their host, and the _Ceratopsyllidae_, or bat-fleas.

Fleas are wingless insects, with a laterally compressed body, small and indistinctly separated head, and short thick antennae situated in cavities somewhat behind and above the simple eyes, which are always minute and sometimes absent. The structure of the mouth-parts is different from that seen in any other insects. The actual piercing organs are the mandibles, while the upper lip or labrum forms a sucking tube. The maxillae are not piercing organs, and their function is to protect the mandibles and labrum and separate the hairs or feathers of the host. Maxillary and labial palpi are also present, and the latter, together with the labrum or lower lip, form the rostrum.