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and by the loom made into cloth, from the coarsest 

 sheeting to the finest cambric. From this plant I have 

 seen thread so fine, as to be nearly worth its weight in 

 gold, to be afterwards manufactured into lace. Thus 

 by industry and ingenuity a simple vegetable is con- 

 verted to one of the most ornamental and expensive 

 luxuries of dress. 



Flax not only supplies us with that cloth called 

 linen, a word derived from Linum, the classical name of 

 the plant, but the seeds furnish an oil, called linseed 

 oil, of great importance in painting and varnishing j and 

 after the oil is expressed from them, the refuse, called 

 oil-cake, is applied to the fattening of cattle, a food 

 profitable to the farmer, but injurious to the flavour 

 of the meat. d 



d In the simplicity of former times, when families in this 

 island provided within themselves most of the necessaries and 

 conveniencies of life, every garden supplied a proper quantity of 

 hemp and flax for domestic use. The necessary preparation of 

 steeping it in water, previous fo dressing it, was so offensive 

 and detrimental, that in the reign of Henry VIJI, a law was 

 made to prevent any person from watering hemp or flax in any 

 stream, river, or common pond, where beasts wher^ accustomed 

 to drink, on pain of forfeiting, for every time, twenty shillings} 

 and this law is still in force. 



