The plant linum usitatissimum is cultivated for its fibres from which linen is made, and for its seeds from which linseed oil comes. Ireland and Lancashire were big flax-growing areas in the C17 and C18. Flax was also imported from Russia. The stem of the plant provides the fibres from which linen yarn is spun. After harvest, seeds are removed by passing the heads of the plants through a rippler (coarse comb), and the fibres loosened in their stems by the retting process - bundles of stems are soaked in water for ten to fourteen days. Long holes dug into boggy ground called lint holes were also sometimes used (hence term bogging). This causes the fibres to be loosened and the other stalk tissue decomposes. After air drying the stems are broken to beat off the unwanted material (boon or shove). This scutching process was originally done by hand, or under stone-edged runner lint wheels with up to twelve wooden blades. By mid C18 machinery in a scutch mill was used. Finally the flax fibres were drawn through steel combs called hackles, tied up in bundles called stricks and delivered to the spinner (William Jones, 1996, Dictionary of Industrial Archaeology, Patricia Baines, 1985, Flax and linen, Shire Publications).