112 AGRICULTUEAL REPORT. 



The yield of the Irisli crop, in 1863, is estimated at 60,000 tons, the increase 

 in acreage being 41 per cent., and the product per acre uuu.sually large, making 

 au ao-gregate at least double the annual average for ten years past. It.5 value 

 is estimated at 820,000,000, at $333 per ton. There arc now 650,000 spindles 

 in operation there, which will use 40,000 tons, leaving 20,000 tons for the 

 English mills. 



Continued efforts will be made, while the special demand for textile fibres 

 exists, to increase the amount of the Irish crop, which is not only more skil- 

 fully cultivated and prepared than the Russian, but is a stronger article. 



A hint at the value of this interest to a community is illustrated by the fact 

 that in the province of Ulster, Ireland, last year, the flax product realized 

 820,000,000 to the farmers, and when manufactured within the province, 

 8165,000,000. The province has a population of two millions. 



In Ireland, as in this country, the hinge upon which flax production turns is 

 the success of improvements tending to diminish the cost of preparing the fibre. 

 In 1847, when the processes of Schenck and others led to the hope that scutch- 

 ing machinery would be dispensed with, there was a furore for flax-growing, 

 and a subsequent disappointment when those improvements failed to supersede 

 tedious hand operations. For several years there was a disinclination to extend 

 the business. The desired facility of preparation is not yet attained, though 

 gi-eat improvements have been made in machinery. The Rowan machine for 

 scutching dispenses with the skilled labor necessary with the old machines, 

 and has been operated successfully by a little girl. 



At present prices flax culture is found extremely profitable in Ireland. It 

 has, in fact, always been profitable there. At a meetuig of the tenantry of the 

 Earl of Erne, on his estate, in the county of Fermaugh, Ireland, during last 

 winter, the earl read a letter from a tenant showing the receipt of $400 from 

 24 cwt. 2 qrs. 20 lbs. of flax grown upon a little more than two acres and a 

 half. He also introduced the following, furnished by Mr. Weir, his manager 

 of a distant estate, as the cost of cultivating one Cunningham acre of flax : 



Two ploughings and harrowings £,\ 



Sowing, rolling, and weeding 2 6 



Pulling 8 



Carting to steep and placing in ponds 10 



Taking out to steep and carting to spreading ground 8 



Spreading 5 



Lifting and stacking 5 



Scutching and breaking 1 15 



Carting to mills and market 6 6 



Seed 2 



7 



An average product would be 5 cwt., worth $60 to $100, according to fine- 

 ness. Deducting $35 as the cost of culture, a very fair margin is left both to 

 tenant and proprietor. 



England grows but little flax, her whole agricultural energies being directed 

 to the production of mutton, beef, and breadstuffs. The condition of Scotland 

 is essentially the same, 3,000 to 6,000 acres only being devoted to flax culture. 

 Dorset, Somerset, Norfolk, and Yorkshire have been engaged sparingly in flax 

 culture. An effort has recently been made to increase it, but Englishmen are 

 well aware that their main reliance is upon their colonial possessions, or Ire- 

 land, rather than England, for increase of flax-growing, and hence efforts have 

 been directed to Canada, northern India, and Australia. Little has been done 

 in the latter country, yet it is said that thousands of acres of wild flax are 



