225 



A circumftance of peculiar excellencCj in the linen manufacture, is 

 its intimate connexion with agriculture. It not only employs the peo- 

 ple aftually engaged, in the manufacture itfelf, but alfo, the huf- 

 bandman in raifing the prhnmn, about which it is con'verfant. Much 

 of good hufbandry confifts, in a certain rotatfon, or interchange of 

 crops ; one fpecies of tillage prepares the ground, for the reception 

 of another. Some productions exhaufl, fome ameliorate the land. A 

 judicious farmer will confider this, and introduce a fucceffion of crops. 

 Among thefe, flax naturally takes its turn. 



The cultivation of flax is attended with very confiderabre profit ; * 

 indeed, were it not fo, we Qiould not fee it prevail fo generally as 

 it does, in every part of Ireland', but as it is a crop, which ex- 

 hautts the land, it cannot uniformly be continued ; other xrops (of 

 potatoes for inftance) mufl be fubflituted ; thus the cultivation of flax 

 will lead to a general cultivation of land, and a production of the ne- 

 ceflaries of life, in abundance. 



In addition to the great quantity of produftive labour employed, in 

 the operations of agriculture, to produce crops of flax, vaft numbers, 

 of women and children, are bufied in gathering, and drying the flax, 

 faving the feed, in fteeping the flax to feparate it from the oil, and 

 drefling it, to prepare it for the wheel. The circumftance of employing 

 women and children, who might otherwife be a helplefs burden on the 

 community, mud particularly recommend any manufactures to the protec- 

 tion of the legiflature. 



The more we confider the linen manufa£lure of Ireland, the more 

 we ftiall be convinced, that the induftry of the country never ought 

 to lofe fight of it. Bounties and protecting duties, may enable other 

 manufactures, to keep up a frail exiftence, and fupply a part, perhaps, 

 a fmall one, of the home confumption : They will never enable them, 

 ^ Vol.. IX. ( F f ) to 



* Young makes the, average expence for tent, labour, and feed, of cultivating an acre of 

 flax, £Z. 15s. 2d. and the average value of the crop he makes £\(;. 8s. id. — So the n^t 

 average profit of the hu(bandman is near £1, 



