It is good to keep over the flax before spinning it, not only in the straw, but after scutching, and even after hackling. The Germans attach great importance to having a soft and silky fibre. To this end they beat the flax after it is scutched, they rub it with an iron comb without teeth, and they are especially careful to let it grow old, either in straw or after it has been scutched. SPINNING. As a general and incontestible rule, it is necessary in order to make good yarn, to proportion the quality of the flax to the description of yarn to be spun. If fine yarn be produced from flax of an inferior quality, the quality of the yarn, and necessarily the cloth, will be bad. It is then a very prejudicious idea, that with any kind of flax, fine yarn can be produced. It is equally necessary to hackle the flax, according to the fineness and quality of the yarn to be spun. The finer and better the yarn to be produced, the more should the tow be separated from the solid fibres. Great care should be given to the process of spinning--it is the fingers that spin, the wheel only twists. The length of the fibre contributes much to the solidity of the yarn, it is, therefore, important to place the flax upon the distaff so that the spinner can always take the fibre by the end, and not by the middle. This observation has been made in France, in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes and Cambrai, where the good yarn for lace is produced. The spinning wheel should be adapted to the description of the yarn to be produced, the smaller the _wheel_, the more open and flat will be the yarn. The larger it is, the more the yarn is round and twisted. There is this distinction to make between warp and weft, that the former requires to be more twisted than the latter. To make good cloth, the thread of the warp should be round, that of the weft flat and open. Yarn for thread should be more twisted than the other descriptions. This is the reason that at Lempleuve wheels of great diameter, and turned by three cords, are used.