Short flax fibres that are removed during the scutching or hackling processes:
(1) rug tow: short flax fibre removed during scutching and containing extraneous woody material
(2) re-scutched tow: short fibre which has been cleaned in a tow-scutching apparatus
(3) machine tow: short fibre which has been removed from scutched long flax during the hackling process
Textile Resource (http://www.textile.org.uk)