THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



221 



the grain is quite fit for use. M. Delafond thinks that 

 this maceration is much better than boiling, which 

 furnishes a food too pasty. It is proper to state that 

 the siliquas of colza mixed with the boiled grain 

 remedies in part this inconvenience, and otherwise form 

 of themselves a nourishment that ought not to be neg- 

 lected. We may add that in lieu of barley or rye, 



buckwheat or steeped maize might be used instead of 

 oats : even wheat may be substituted, if treated in the 

 same manner by maceration.* This must be arranged 

 by individuals, so as to give the least costly and at the 

 same time the most wholesome food, consulting the 

 averages, and substituting one grain for another, taking 

 weight for weight." 



DEFICIENCY OF SUPPLIES OF FLAX, 



Notwithstanding the enormous increase in the foreign 

 imports and home prodtiction of fibrous materials, the 

 manufacturers are all complaining of insufficient sup- 

 plies. Flax, cotton, wool, and other animal and vege- 

 table substances used for spinning, weaving, Sec, are 

 greatly behind the demand for manufacture, and for 

 consumption and export. The mill-owners and manufac- 

 turers are now putting their shoulders to the wheel, and 

 trying to remedy this evil. The provincial journals are 

 filled with notices of meetings of the various parties in- 

 terested, to consider the best plan ot operation for bring- 

 ing about the desired effect. Chambers of Commerce, 

 manufacturers, and mill-owners are laying their heads 

 together, to decide what are the best steps to be taken to 

 draw hither larger supplies. 



The Manchester cotton-spinners have formed their 

 Cotton-supply Association, and are moving energeti- 

 cally, calling upon every producing country, and every 

 locality fitted to raise cotton-wool to send their in- 

 creased supplies. 



The W'oolstaplers, and wool manufacturers also, of 

 Yorkshire, have just been agitating for further supplies 

 of the raw material, and are casting their eyes about to 

 discover from whence they can draw larger quantities 

 of wool. And now we perceive the flax-spinners and 

 linen manufacturers are in equal straits, and are 

 seeking to promote the culture of Flax in India and 

 elsewhere. 



Now let us examine the position of the supply of 

 this important raw material. 



According to the latest returns, there appear to be 

 now in the United Kingdom -117 flax mills or factories, 

 with about 1,300,000 spindles, and 8,700 power looms, 

 employing 80,260 persons. Of these, 139 factories are 

 in England and Wales, 168 in Scotland, and 110 in 

 Ireland. Scotland and Ireland employ two-thirds of 

 the hands, and keep 846,000 of the spindles going. 

 Now by the present accounts from Ireland, we find 

 that there are now, on the average, of idle and partially 

 employed spindles about one-eighth of the whole num- 

 ber, that whole number being about 600,000 ; and all 

 the mills totally out of work, caused chiefly by the 

 dearth and scarcity of the raw material. The imports 

 of foreign fibre for the past year fell far below the re- 

 quirements of the trade, and the home cultivation does 

 not extend pi-oportionately to the demand. In the 

 last twelve months the price of hand-scutched flax has 

 advanced nearly 50 per cent. Capitalists (we are told 

 by the organ of the Irish linen trade) ready to invest 



largely in the ei-ection of power-loom factories for the 

 weaving of linen, are kept back from engaging in the 

 enterprise because of the state of the mai-kets and the 

 famine rates for flax. The produce of the 2;j0,000 

 acres now under cultivation with flax in Ireland is fully 

 absorbed by the wants of local factory owners and the 

 demand for continental markets. Supposing, too, any 

 free-trade measures were carried in France, the linen 

 manufacturers of that country would be able to 

 take 10,000 tons per annum of that quality of flax 

 which cannot be raised on their own lauds. The Irish 

 flax-spinning trade, we all know, is of vital importance 

 to the general commerce of Ulster : every incidental 

 circumstance that afiects the linen manufacture gives 

 its peculiar tone, in a greater or less degree, to all 

 other sections of trade, from that of the highest mer- 

 chant to the humblest shopkeeper. 



But it is not only Ireland that is affected by this 

 deficiency of supply ; the evil presses equally great on 

 English and Scotch spinners. Hence the linen manu- 

 facturers of Dundee and Leeds are uniting to consider 

 their prospects and the remedies. 



The Chambers of Commerce of these two towns have 

 agreed that a Flax-supply Association, composed of the 

 various flax spinners and manufacturers in Great 

 Britain, should be formed, and a fund raised to send 

 out intelligent and practical men to instruct the natives 

 of India in the growth of flax, and to point out to them 

 the advantage that would accrue to them by improving 

 the quality of the flax straw. 



Although there is necessarily a limit in this country 

 to the extended cultivation of flax, owing to the ex- 

 hausting nature of the crop, and the stipulations in 

 leases, which, in many cases, prevent its culture, yet 

 there is no reason why in India and our Colonies, where 

 there is abundance of cheap land at disposal, its pro- 

 duction should not be stimulated and extended. In 

 India it might be produced in abundance ; and there 

 does not appear to be any valid or sufficient reason 

 why, with land so much cheaper, and the cost of labour 

 so trifling, the fibres of India— some of which excel, 

 if they do not surpass, the best of Europe— should not, 

 with a little encouragement, care, and perseverance, be- 

 come a large and constantly increasing item of import 

 here. 



Four years ago the Agri-horticultural Society of the 



* This grain ij now cheaper, measure for measure, than 

 barley, oats, or beaus, and its use in feeding cattle and pigs is 

 extensively practised. — Translator, 



