Flax Culture. 423 



liuman hand, to scutcli it, and even to liaclde it ready for the spinner, 

 all in one operation, I so far succeeded that I could do it with a well- 

 chosen piece of flax ; but before our mechanists are reproached with 

 lagging behind in the machinery applied to flax, it should be re- 

 membered that flax varies much in length and in strength. Con- 

 sequently, though I found that with one piece I could carry the 

 operation out by the machine very fairly, another piece not so strong 

 would be torn all to pieces, whilst one that was much stronger was 

 hardly acted upon at all. The difliculty is, that you rarely find two 

 pieces of flax that are of exactly the same description. My machine 

 did not answer, and I had to give it up. 



I may here mention that I have a letter from my manager, who 

 has visited Mr. Marshall's works at Patrington, where he was kindly 

 allowed to remain for three days to get all the information he could 

 gather. He tells me that they are employing not less than IGO people 

 at the flax-mills there, and have twenty-eight scutching-stocks rimning. 

 But to show you how flax varies, and that you cannot lay do\vn any 

 exact data, though you may strike an average, let me state that it 

 appears that whilst one man at Patrington produced llS^lbs. of clean 

 flax in one day's work of ten hom'S — a quantity such as I never heard 

 of before, showing that the flax was extraordinarily good — another man 

 could only produce 351bs. in the same time. 



To speak of the cultivation of flax as the panacea for the ills of 

 Ireland, is in my opinion the greatest nonsense in the world ; and it 

 is very hard fairly to draw a line with regard to the profits on flax- 

 growing so as not to mislead the public. I find one writer — I hope 

 not from interested motives — stating the profits to be enormous. On 

 the other hand, there was a leader in the ' Evening Standard ' a few 

 days ago, which showed that the growth of flax was a dead loss. How 

 can we reconcile such conflicting statements ? 



I consider 5 cwts. of clean flax to the English acre to be a good yield, 

 such as we do not often grow. The profit after all depends on careful 

 manipulation ; because the same flax that, badly handled, may not be 

 worth more than 35Z. a-ton, makes GO?., if properly liandled. 



With regard to the market for flax, the poor, imfortunate flaxgrowcr 

 finds himself very much in the liands of the local merchant — a circum- 

 stance that has much retarded the cultivation of flax in the county of 

 Limerick, The people were encouraged by the proprietors to grow 

 flax, when there was only one person there who had a flax-mill. I 

 myself grew in Tipperary, a few years ago, as fine a description of flax 

 as was ever raised ; and I sent it a distance of twenty miles to this 

 mill. It was fairly worth 3?. a ton ; yet I was oftered 1/. a ton for it. 

 It was worth more than that to thatch my ricks with. I hesitate not 

 to say that this firm has done more than anybody else to stop the 

 growth of flax in that country, for the growers are entirely at their 

 mercy. On the other hand, many farmers grow flax very imperfectly. 

 They hear what others obtain for flax which has been properly treated, 

 and then feel aggrieved because thoy cannot realise the same price. 

 ]My experience in tlie growth of flax ls, that grown after wheat, on the 

 average of years, it will pay better than the crop of wheat. In Glouces- 



