256 



never, in my time, exceeded twenty, and was frequently much under. The Society 

 already alluded to, which is supported by a Government grant and voluntary 

 contributions from manufacturers and landed proprietors, has done much good, 

 of late years, by placing (jualified persons at the disposal of local Agricultural 

 Societies to give pi-actical instructions in the different processes of flax manage- 

 ment; the quahty of the flax raised has been immensely improved, and the profit 

 accruing to the producer in proportion. 



In Holland the system of conducting the flax trade comes nearer to that we 

 shall have to adopt in Wisconsin. Perhaps four-fifths of all the flax raised iu 

 that country, averaging somewhere about 7,000 tons per annum, is owned by 

 men resident on the small islands of Onermaas and the two Beyerlands, who 

 make a business of it. Flax is grown by farmers on their own land in scattering 

 districts, but is mostl}' of poor quality and of little account, if I except the pro- 

 vince of Friesland, where strong good flax is raised, fit only, however, for making 

 shoemaker's thread, and some numbers of tailor's thread. The way in which the 

 bulk of the crop is managed is this : at the proper season, the men who have 

 their establishments on the islands named above, go into the neighboring pro- 

 vinces, Zeeland is pi'eferred, and rent such land as they think suitable. The occu- 

 pant of the land ploughs and drags it, the flax farmer ( Vlas Boer he is called) 

 furnishes the seed, sows it, and weeds the crop when about two inches high. This 

 is so far only a j^^'ovisional agreement. On the twenty-first of June all interested 

 go to their respective sowings to inspect the crop. If it promises, favorably in 

 the estimation of the "Vlas Boer," the original bargain is confirmed and stands; 

 but if otherwise, he has the libei-ty of throwing it up, pays no rent, but sacrifices 

 his seed and all his expenditure for weeding, travelling, &c. The farmer, on 

 whose land the crop stands, may then either speculate on a change of weather 

 improving the flax, (the seed has cost him nothing, and he can be content with 

 rather a poor crop), or he ploughs it down at once and puts in a crop of rape. 



Perhaps this system has originated from the circumstance that in Zeeland 

 where the least flax soil is, the water is brackish and unfit for rotting flax. 

 Aroimd the islands of Onermaas, old and new Beyerland, &c., the numerous 

 branches of the Khine, under local names, are beyond the reach of salt water, 

 though influenced by the tide; and the land itself is below their liigh-water 

 le\el by several feet, protected by dykes. Inside these celebrated dykes the 

 fields are intei'sected, not by fences and hedges as with us, but by ditches a 

 few feet wide to drain the land. In those wdiich are filled with soft water, the 

 flax is rotted, and afterward spread on the pastui'e ground at hand. The flax is 

 brought home in lightei-s, and it being all inland navigation, the boats are not 

 only loaded under hatches, but built upon on deck, half way up the mast, so that 

 the transport is not expensive. As the same water cannot, certainly ought not^ 



