6o Report of the BritiJIj Coriful in IPruJftay Jan. 



wheat crop would render, above that which a crop of oats 

 would have produced ? If fuch is the cafe, confidering the 

 fubje6t in a theoretical point of view, the only doubt that re- 

 mains, in refpe<St to the pra£lical application thereof to the 

 objeft of the prefent report, may be reduced to this fimple 

 queltion. Whether England, in particular, is in the firft or 

 the lafl of the two fituations above defcribed ? Since, if it is 

 a£lually in the Jaft, there would then remain no doubt, that 

 the cultivation of flax and hemp, as two articles which, if we 

 do not grow, we muft import, may and ought, to a certain 

 degree, be countenanced or encouraged, in preference even 

 to that of corn-, or, at lead, affords fo great a probability of the 

 truth of this conclufion, as to recommend the fubjedi to the 

 inveiiigation of perfons of fuperior knowledge. 



13. Be this as it may, certain it is, that, in fome countries, 

 and particularly in Weft Pruflia, the peafants are not allowed 

 to cultivate eitlier flax or hemp, until they have firft fown a 

 Sufficiency of corn for their own confumption; while no traces 

 of any encouragement, given by either of them, are to be 

 found ; thefe governments, it would feem, entertaining an 

 idea, that there is a fufficient, if not even too great an en- 

 couragement or temptation, to prefer thefe articles to corn, 

 fimply in the fuperior profit arifing from the comparative pro- 

 duce of their crops. 



Allowance is, however, to be made for this material clr- 

 cumllance, that, in thofe countries, the peafantry are yet in a 

 Itate of bondage, either a61;ual or cotifeqiientlalt and therefore 

 without any other ftimulus to iaduftry, or even to provide 

 for their own perfonal fuftenance, than what proceeds from a 

 fear of either fufFering a£lual want, or corporal chaftifement. 



Berlwy i/^t/j Nov. I'jSg. James Durno. 



Translatiok. 



^lefaon I . What foil is deemed beft for growing of flax 

 or hemp ? 



Anjiver. Flax and hemp will grow beft upon a middling 

 foil, as they become too exuberant when the foil is rich ; and 

 a fandy foil, particularly if the feafon be dry, has not fufli- 

 cient power to mature them 5 but ftill the fame foil does not, 

 in every diftri£l, produce the fame crop. It has been found, 

 that the Oberlands feed, fown in Lithuania, in the fame foil it 

 fprang from, degenerated the third year; on the other hand, 

 Lithuania feed fown in Oberlands, improved, and produced, 

 the third year, a crop equal to the beft Oberlands. ' 

 I ^ 2. When is the beft time to few liax and hemp ? 



A. l\\ Oberlands, they few flax and hemp in the beginning 



of 



