FLAX. 



11^ 



Tlie following statement sliovrs tlie imports of flax and similar fibres into 

 England in the last three years, exhibiting a steady increase, except in llax in 

 1863, "vvhich was extensively manufactured at the sources of supply, and hence 

 could not be obtained to meet the demand : 



18G1. 



1862. 



18G3. 



Flax fibre 

 Hemp . . . 

 Jute 



cwt. 

 1,333,079 

 792, 054 

 932, 638 



cwi. 

 1,798,351 

 981,765 

 969,943 



net. 

 1, 458, 962 

 1, 038, 159 

 1, 252, 787 



OIL-CAKE AXD ITS USES. 



The consumption of oil-cake for fattening purposes has reached an extraordi- 

 nary point in Great Britain. It is not easy to ascertain how much of thcii 

 imported oil-cake is linseed, but it is estimated by good English authorities at 

 one-half The average importation for eight years past has been 93,000 tons, 

 one-half of which is 46,500 tons. The manufacture of cake from seed has been 

 mox'e than three times as much. The imports of linseed have averaged for eight 

 years 198,000 tons per annum, of which one-fourth is oil and three-fourths 

 cake, leaving 148,500 tons of domestic cake, which, added to the estimate of 

 linseed cake, gives a total of 195,000 tons, valued at more than nine millions 

 of dollars. Including other oil-cakes, the total would be increased to 241,500 

 tons, swelling the entire consumption of oil-cakes to at least eleven and a half 

 millions of dollars. And this is the average for eight years past, which is much 

 ess than more recent figures, as will be seen from the following statement : 



Oil-cake. Linseed. 



1859 95,208 tons. 10,167,288 bushels. 



1860 108,826 " 10,644,984 



1861 113,725 " 9,282,160 



1862 101,156 " 8,707,776 



1863 88,566 8,836,624 



The average of linseed for eight years (198,000 tons) is placed at 8,529,232 

 bushels ; of oil-cake, 93,000 tons. 



The graziers and the feeders are distinct and separate classes in England, as 

 they are beginning to be in this country. While the former must sell, the lat- 

 ter, with heavy turnip crops ripening and bi-oad acres crying for manure, yield 

 to the more imperative necessity of buying, and it sometimes happens that 

 prices of " beasts" and sheep are high, and beef and mutton at the same time 

 low, leaving a small margin for grain and oil-cake, and some prospect of ulti- 

 mate loss. But these facts do not beget the reasoning that expensive oil-cake 

 must be dispensed with as unproductive ; on the contrary, speedy conversion 

 of turnips, straw, and grain into meat — rapid fattening — are regarded as the 

 only means of escaping loss, and oil-cake is more than ever required to give 

 wings to that speed. 



The noted Alderman Mechi represents the extreme of high feeding there. 

 His recent recommendation of twenty-eight pounds per day for each fattening 

 bullock is laughed at by moderate men, who regarded four, six, and eight 

 pounds as amply sufficient. 



WEEDS IN FLAX. 



"Weeds are the bane of all agriculture. So wonderful is their power of repro- 

 duction, and 60 rampant is their growth, particularly in. the fat corn lands of 



