In confirmation of this I can only say, I procured some flax, in its dry state, which had been thrown away as not worth _retting_--4 lbs. of dry flax produced 1 _lb._ of fibre fit for the hackle: when dressed in Lee's machine, the samples of flax, tow, and thread, though, from the poor quality of the flax, inferior to some samples of English flax dressed in the same manner, were greatly superior to any that had been retted. I have, however, never made the experiment of weighing the flax, and then ascertaining its produce when retted; but from the knowledge of those who gave evidence to this point, have no doubt of its correctness. There is another advantage; the flax dressed in a dry state becomes much whiter, and is easier bleached--merely washing it in soap and water makes it white: the finest particles of flax are also saved, which are essential to the manufacture of lace, or very fine linen: the seed is also all preserved. Mr. Brande, professor of chymistry at the Royal Institution, made some experiments on the nutritious quality of the chaff: the result was, an eighth of nutritious matter. Mr. Lee says, it is equal to a crop of oats for feeding cattle; and it appeared also, that horses, when accustomed to it, prefer it to clover chaff. Having thus briefly stated the advantages of the dry method of dressing flax, I will proceed to give some account of the machines for preparing it, which have been invented since Mr. Lee's. The best appears to be Hill and Bundy's, for which Mr. Bundy obtained a patent, in England. It consists of two machines, a breaker and a rubber; the first for separating the harle from the boon; the second cleanses it from small particles of wood and bark, left by the breaker. The breaker consists of fine fluted rollers, so disposed as to draw the flax through them, at the same time to take off the woody parts from it; once passing through is generally sufficient. It is a machine combining great mechanical skill, and on an entirely different principle from Mr. Lee's, and is not liable to get out of order. The rubber is made to have the same effect as rubbing by hand would, to cleanse the fibre, and open and subdivide it, to produce the finest thread. Mr. Lee has invented a new machine, consisting of fluted rollers, to work by water or horse power: it is different from Hill and Bundy's, which is worked by hand; and the rollers work differently. From experiments made by the different machines, it appears by the report of the committee of the house of commons, that in Hill and Bundy's, one breaker and two rubbers would produce 80 _lbs._ of prepared flax in a day, and would require one man or woman and three children: the work is light--a man can turn two breakers and two rubbers. Lee's machine would produce about 11 _lbs._ a day; his new machine, worked by water, will product 50 _lbs._ in a day, and requires three men or women to attend it.