When I was a young lad I saw them pulling flax in the field. They spread it out and dried it. Then they'd tie up and put the sheaves in the bog hole. They'd take it up after three weeks and spread it on the bank to dry. They had big high hobs in the fire then and they'd put sticks across the hob well over the fire and they'd put the flax on that to dry. When the flax was dry they'd beetle it on the kitchen floor. When beetled they'd tie it up and scutch it They had a footboard and a scutching handle and when they had it scutched they'd tie it up and put it through the "clove". The "clove" was like a half barrel of a gun. They'd put the flax into it, press it with apiece of timber and pull it through it, and it would not leave a piece of a "Stove" in it. Then they put it through the hackle. The hackle was a bit of a board with about
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