182 Cultivation and Froiiev Management of Flax. 



large a return per acre as flax, the produce in money being from 

 20/. to 30Z., and occasionally even as high as 40/. No wonder 

 that statesmen, landed proprietors, and enterprising merchants 

 have exerted themselves to secure by flax-culture the same 

 advantages for the south and west of Ireland which have hitherto 

 enriched the north. That the farmers of England and Scotland 

 should also share in this source of wealth is neither impossible nor 

 improbable. Vast quantities of i\hve are still imported from the 

 continent to keep our mills going ; and if our I'riends at home 

 could only be induced to raise a sufliciency of the article, they 

 might put into their own pockets millions of pounds which are 

 now sent out of the country. Knowing that the soil of England 

 and Scotland is as well suited to the produce of flax as that of the 

 most of Ireland, I am encouraged to call the attention of the 

 Roval Agricultural Society of l'h)gland to the proper cultivation 

 anil management of the plant, in the hope that its influence may 

 induce the farmers of Great Britain to give a full and fair trial 

 to the crop that has so largely benefited Ireland. 



Soil. — The soil best adapted to the growth of flax is a free and 

 friable loam on a clay bottom. Clay land that has been well and 

 deeply cultivated for years will suit well also ; and if favoured with 

 light rains shortly after the seed is sown, so that the hraird is 

 brought forward evoihj, will, generally speaking, yield a heavier 

 and more remunerative crop than loam. On no soil is the fibre 

 as tough and the yield as great as on clay ; but the drawback is 

 that the plant misses oftener than on loam. Clay ground is not 

 easily pulverised after the second week in April ; and if the seed 

 be cast among hard clods, it will lie there without germinating for 

 weeks, whereas a warm kindly soil, highly pulverised, will start 

 it into vegetation within six or seven days. One great point to 

 be secured is to get the seed all struck at once. If parts of the 

 field get into hraird before others have even got into hud, the 

 crop will come forward in different lengths — it will not ripen 

 evenly ; and if the green and the ripe be taken up at the same 

 time, the one must be sacrificed to the other, both in the water 

 and in the mill. The late growth will have run up to its height 

 so rapidly during the heat of the latter part of the season, that 

 it will not have tenacity and stamina to stand the strain ot 

 working with the earlier growth. 



Since the best lands for flax are those which have a retentive 

 subsoil, they are apt to hold water ; therefore, to insure a crop, they 

 should be thoroughly drained. Flax can, from the very first, bear 

 anv amount of rain that mav fall upon it, if the water get freely 

 away ; but it will not bear without injury, even for a day, stagnant 

 water gathered round its stems. 



