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of our "Transactions," in the hope that it may be found worthy of inser- 

 tion therein. 



I fear that I am writing upon a rather unpopular theme. There was, 

 last spring, among our farmers a general movement -towards something 

 new in agriculture, in consequence of successive failures of the wheat crop, 

 and flax was adopted by many as offering the best chance for a profita- 

 ble change. I had shipped off all of my seed to Ireland and the Eastern 

 markets, before the close of Lake navigation, and, therefore, could not 

 meet the demand Avhich poured in upon me from all quarters, for sowing 

 seed ; and, as a flax grower, I should have been glad that little could have 

 been obtained elsewhere, for there is no doubt, but that a great quantity 

 of spurious seed was imported into the State, (I may safely say unin- 

 tentionally by the importers,) which, like the Canada thistle, will not be 

 easily got rid of, and will prove a serious evil when flax and seed are, and 

 not seed alone is, the object of sowing. Good flax cannot be produced 

 from the common run of seed raised in Ohio, Indiana, &c. 



It is very well, so far as it goes, if the farmers can make the seed pay 

 of itself as a crop, and they never had a better chance of testing that, 

 than this season presented, because, though very unfavorable for the 

 fibre, the stalk being short, in consequence of the drought in summer, 

 there was probably as good a crop of seed as will occur in an average 

 of five years. I say it is well if the seed proves a paying crop of itself, 

 for that shows that no more profitable crop can be raised than flax, when 

 we shall have mills established throughout the country, to use up the 

 straw, which is by far the most valuable portion of it. It has always 

 appeared to me, that turnips may, with equal propriety, be grown for the 

 sake of the leaves, as that flax may be grown for seed alone. I rather 

 fear that a number of our farmers have gone into the culture of flax, 

 without due consideration, and, being disappointed in the result, a for- 

 midable check may be presented to its future extension, simply because 

 we have put the cart before the horse — grown the flax before we had the 

 appliances for its preparation in scutching mills. Why, in the present 

 abundance of capital at the East, the general extension of enterprise of 

 all kinds to employ it, and the pressing demand for flax in our own 

 manufactories, no more attention should have been devoted to -this arti- 

 cle, is beyond my comprehension. There is certainly no lack of encour- 

 agement. A gentleman, interested in the manufacture of threads, who 

 visited me last summer for the express purpose of seeing what foothold 



