bast fibers.

3. What is the most important bast fiber?

4. What is retting?

5. For what purpose is linen subjected to retting?

6. Through what five processes does the flax fiber pass before it is
free?

7. Where is the best flax grown?

=Experiment 13--Carding=

Apparatus: A pair of hand cards.
Material: Small quantity of scoured wool.
References: _Textiles_, pages 39 and 50.

_Directions_

1. Examine the hand cards. Notice that there is a foundation of
several layers of leather. Notice that this foundation is covered with
staples of steel wire. Notice that the staples are shaped like the
letter U with the points turned one way. The covering of the hand
cards is called _card clothing_.

2. Hold one hand card in the left hand, face up, wires pointing to the
left. Spread the wool over the pointed wires of this card.

3. Hold the other card in the right hand, face down, with the wires
pointing to the right. Bring the pointed wires of this card down on
the wool and drag it lightly through the wires of the other card.
Repeat several times.

4. You have been _carding_ wool. The sharp points have been tearing
the wool apart or disentangling the fibers. Carding brushes the fibers
out smooth and makes them somewhat parallel. It forms them into a thin
sheet.

5. The wool must be carded many times before it is sufficiently
disentangled for drawing and spinning. In order to card again the hand
card must be _stripped_ of the wool so that it may be dragged again
through the staples.

6. Hold the hand card, which is in your right hand, erect. Notice that
the wires point downward. Move the other hand downward over the
wires. Notice that the surface is smooth. The points do not prick as
they will if you try to brush the hand upwards over the wires.

7. Hold the card in the left hand in a similar position. Raise and
bring the sharp wires of this card down on the smooth surface of the
other card and strip it of its wool.

8. Card again, then strip again. Repeat several times until the fibers
are thoroughly disentangled.

9. This carding and stripping, once done by hand, is now done in the
mill by a power machine called the _card_. (See picture, _Textiles_,
page 38.) Notice that instead of cards this machine consists of
rollers or cylinders. Some are carding cylinders and some are
stripping cylinders. The principle is the same as that of the hand
cards. The wool is carded and stripped again and