What is "strike of flax"

Strike \Strike\, n.

1. The act of striking.

2. An instrument with a straight edge for leveling a measure of grain, salt, and the like, scraping off what is above the level of the top; a strickle.

3. A bushel; four pecks. [Prov. Eng.]
   --Tusser.

4. An old measure of four bushels. [Prov. Eng.]

5. Fullness of measure; hence, excellence of quality.

   Three hogsheads of ale of the first strike.
   --Sir W. Scott.

6. An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence. [Obs.]

7. The act of quitting work; specifically, such an act by a body of workmen, usually organized by a labor union, done as a means of enforcing compliance with demands made on their employer.

   Strikes are the insurrections of labor.
   --F. A. Walker.

8. (Iron Working) A puddler's stirrer.

9. (Geol.) The horizontal direction of the outcropping edges of tilted rocks; or, the direction of a horizontal line supposed to be drawn on the surface of a tilted stratum. It is at right angles to the dip.

10. The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing.

11. A sudden finding of rich ore in mining; hence, any sudden success or good fortune, esp. financial.

12. (Bowling, U. S.) The act of leveling all the pins with the first bowl; also, the score thus made. Sometimes called double spare. Throwing a strike entitles the player to add to the score for that frame the total number of pins knocked down in the next two bowls.

13. (Baseball) Any actual or constructive striking at the pitched ball, three of which, if the ball is not hit fairly, cause the batter to be put out; hence, any of various acts or events which are ruled as equivalent to such a striking, as failing to strike at a ball so pitched that the batter should have struck at it. ``It's one, two, three strikes you're out in the old ball game.''
    --[Take me out to the ball game]

14. (Tenpins) Same as Ten-strike. Strike block (Carp.), a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint. --Moxon. Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] --Chaucer. Strike of sugar. (Sugar Making)

    1. The act of emptying the teache, or last boiler, in which the cane juice is exposed to heat, into the coolers.

    2. The quantity of the sirup thus emptied at once.