Ij 8 ExtraS} of a Letter from a Linen Mamfaclurer^ July 



JExtraSi of a Letter from a Linen Manufaclurer^ to 

 Sir JojiN Sinclair, Bart. 



» Dated May II. 1 795. 



SiR,-^Were an apology neceflary for the trouble this may 

 occafion, I (hould be much at a lofs how to make one, that 

 could be accouiitcci proper ; but as there can be no oflcnce 

 in communicating a few hints, refpe£ling the improvement 

 of any produ6lion of the earth, more efpecially thofe of our 

 native foil, I forbear otfering any apology for the liberty now 

 taken. 



Nor can I fuppofe the conveyance of fuch hints, confirm- 

 ed by praftical experience, will be the lefs acceptable for 

 being exprefled In language familiar to thofe who are bred to 

 cultivate the foil, whofe ideas and converfation, like their 

 daily labour, have nothing to recommend it but fimplicity 

 and antiquity ; for, in every other refpe£l, their ideas and 

 converfation are, in general, the leaft improved of any de- 

 fcription of men in the empire, and to thefe they adhere 

 with as much obllinacy as they do to their antiquated cuf- 

 tomary modes of cultivation. In no part of culture, this is, 

 or can be more confpicuous than in that of hemp and flax, 

 which, in the courfe of more than a century, has not receiv- 

 ed any vifible improvement, although they are every year be- 

 coming more important, as materials for numerous and va- 

 rious branches of our manufa£lures. 



In the north-eaft part of the county of Cumberland, where 

 I refided for feveral years, and was concerned in carrying 

 on a branch of the linen manufacture, I endeavoured much 

 to introduce a different mode of procefs in the growth of 

 flax, and every part of the procefs it muft neceffarily go 

 through before its being fit for the heckle. For this purpofe, 

 for feveral years, I had from three to five acres under flax. 

 My principal intention was, to fliow a fuperior attention in 

 the choice of the ground, in the preparation previous to its 

 receiving the feed, in the weeding of the flax when growing, 

 in pulling it at a proper time, preferving the feed, watering 

 the flax, fpreading it to whiten the bark or flcin, for drying 

 and breaking the bone or ftem, and feparating the fhoves 

 from the flax, &c. ; all of which were the dire£l reverfe of the 

 common modes in ufe, and which I endeavoured to render as 

 confpicuous as poflTible, in order to encourage, by example, a 

 deviation from the cuftomary proceflTes in ufe. But, for up- 

 wards of nine years, neither example, nor the experience of the 



good 



