1. Practice making a hemmed patch at home. Mother will surely have a tablecloth or an undergarment or an apron which needs a patch. Try to keep the patch very flat.
2. See how much you can learn about linen before next lesson.
Lesson 5
THE STORY OF HOW LINEN IS GROWN
What is the story of our linen materials?
Where do they come from? Would you like to know?
Mollie's Stark's Uncle John has just come to Pleasant Valley. He is her father's brother and has been in the linen business in Ireland. He told the Girls' League the other evening about flax and about how it is made into cloth. This is the story he told. It has also been printed in the "Pleasant Valley News." Have you read it?
Where does flax grow? Ireland is a cool country, and flax is a plant which grows well in cool places. Cotton, we have learned, is grown in warm countries. Do you know that Russia produces about half of the world's supply of flax? Find your map of Europe, and see if you can locate all these countries. The Russian flax is rather inferior in quality. Ireland and Belgium produce the best quality of fiber. Flax is also grown in Holland and France, and in Egypt and Italy. The United States grows some flax; but it is a rather coarse fiber used for crash and for bagging. The United States grows very little flax and only for the coarser purposes. This is for the reason that labor is very expensive; and flax, like silk, needs much care if weeded and grown for fiber. The care of the worms makes silk expensive. Flax grown for seed or coarse purposes does not require so much care.
Fig 103.—The flax plant grows 20 to 40 inches in height.