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Hemp, Flax, and Iron: The American Viewand other linen textiles stemmed chiefly from the poor qualityof itsflax. Americans processed theirflaxin the same way astheir hemp, separating the usefulfibers from the gumminess ofthe stalk by dew-retting. Whe n American flax was waterretted,again as in parts of Connecticut, its quality was equal tothe best water-retted from abroad. Such methods, however,were the rare exception in the United States. Whe n the Nav yDepartment inquired why more Americanflax was not used inthe making of its sails, it was told that "it appears to be theuniversal opinion of experienced me n that the process of dewrettingflaxdiminishesits value and its weight, injures its color,and impairs its quality and strength." 31All of which left Americans importing their duck and finerlinens. The young nation's clumsy processing of itsflaxservedto reinforce the century-and-a-half-old habit of buying its linensoverseas.America's greatest source of linen was Russia. For example,in 1801, she imported from St. Petersburg alone 32,997 piecesof duck, 33,820 pieces of ravensduck, 34,224 pieces of flem,and 860 pieces of drill. 32O f the other goods imported from Russia, cordage, especiallythe great cables half a foot and more in diameter, was the mostimportant. In 1800, for instance, w e imported 11,883 hundredweightof cordage from Russia, an amount impressive enoughto imply that America was significantly dependent on Russiafor finished cordage. Tallow and tallow candles were anotherimportant product brought from Russia. In the decade beforethe Wa r of 1812, American tallow and soap makers used600,000 pounds of foreign tallow a year. Between 1820 and1830, imports of tallow rose to 1,100,000 pounds yearly. Tal­2-3