with the
slats set far enough apart to go into the spaces of the lower slats. The
flax was laid on the lower slats, the frame and upper slats placed on
it, and then pounded down with a heavy wooden mallet weighing many
pounds. Sometimes the upper frame of slats, or knives as they were
called, were hinged to the big under log at one end, and heavily
weighted at the other, and thus the blow was given by the fall of the
weight, not by the force of the farmer's muscle. The tenacity of the
flax can be seen when it would stand this violent beating; and the cruel
blow can be imagined, which the farmer's fingers sometimes got when he
carelessly thrust his hand with the flax too far under the descending
jaw--a shark's maw was equally gentle.

Flax was usually broken twice, once with an "open-tooth brake," once
with a "close or strait brake," that is, one where the long, sharp-edge
strips of wood were set closely together. Then it was scutched or
swingled with a swingling block and knife, to take out any small
particles of bark that might adhere. A man could swingle forty pounds
of flax a day, but it was hard work. All this had to be done in clear
sunny weather when the flax was as dry as tinder.

The clean fibres were then made into bundles called strikes. The strikes
were swingled again, and from the refuse called swingle-tree hurds,
coarse bagging could be spun and woven. After being thoroughly cleaned
the rolls or strikes were sometimes beetled, that is, pounded in a
wooden trough with a great pestle-shaped beetle over and over again
until soft.

Then came the hackling or hetcheling, and the fineness of the flax
depended upon the number of hacklings, the fineness of the various
hackles or hetchels or combs, and the dexterity of the operator. In the
hands of a poor hackler the best of flax would be converted into tow.
The flax was slightly wetted, taken hold of at one end of the bunch, and
drawn through the hackle-teeth towards the hetcheller, and thus fibres
were pulled and laid into continuous threads, while the short fibres
were combed out. It was dusty, dirty work. The threefold process had to
be all done at once; the fibres had to be divided to their fine
filaments, the long threads laid in untangled line, and the tow
separated and removed. After the first hackle, called a ruffler, six
other finer hackles were often used. It was one of the surprises of
flax preparation to see how little good fibre would be left after a