LINEN FABRICS.
W. E. WATT, A. M.
WE HAD just taken that delightful ride down the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and experienced the thrill of mingled pleasure and fear which everyone has at the moment when the vessel is dashing at a furious rate directly towards a great rock, and we were sure that someone had made a mistake for once, and no power could save us from being dashed in pieces, when a sudden whirling current of the stream picked the ship out of the way of the rock and carried her safely through the boiling foam into a place of comparative safety.
As we stood among the seagoing shipping of the port of Montreal we could easily understand why there should be such a great city there. We took but little stock in what had been said of the great business enterprise of the early settlers of that town and how they built up the place till it became a great seaport and an important commercial center. No doubt they were able and enterprising men, but Montreal was made by nature the greatest and most important seaport of Canada by the peaceful deep river and its formidable rapids. Since no ships can sail up those rapids the boats that came from Europe and all over the earth were obliged to tie up there and discharge their cargoes.
Wherever there is a ledge of rock to stop the coming up of vessels from the sea there is always an important town to receive what those ships bring and to distribute it over the country round about.
We went aboard a ship that had just come in from France loaded with cases of wines. As the wines were being carried ashore at some of the gangways loads of something else were being brought aboard at others. This stuff was done up in sacks longer than a man and very heavy. It took several men to handle a sack. They were so careless about it that we wondered that they did not fear breaking the contents of the sacks. Then we wondered more what sort of stuff could be shipped to Europe in such sacks and in such great quantities. We inquired; and it took some little time to make the inquiry, for the men who did the work spoke something that sounded like French, but our school French did not suit them. We could find no one at hand who spoke English. We learned that the sacks contained oilcake.
Linen has been woven since records of what man has done have been kept. Some historians claim that cotton is the oldest fabric, and give instances of old records of its use in India and China. Others claim woolen goods to be the oldest, and yet others claim the honor for linen. Whoever looks into the matter extensively will be inclined to give the credit to whichever fabric he studies most, but it is likely that the figleaf will be credited with the greatest age as a fabric by most people.
The seed of flax is ground fine, either roasted or raw, and placed under heavy hydraulic pressure. This brings out the oil, which is a very important article called linseed oil. The cake is valuable for feeding cattle and the oil is used in all kinds of painting where the painted surface has to stand against the weather. Most of the flax raised in America is cultivated for the seed mainly. In Ohio three pecks of seed are sown to the acre and from six to twelve bushels are harvested. There is also a ton or two of straw to the acre, which is used at the rope-walks and paper-mills. Linen paper is peculiarly valuable.