80 IMPORTANCE OF MR. SOMERVILLE'S LETTER. 



thin, and grows tall and strong in the stalk, is inferior to that 

 which is thicker sown and smaller in the stem. 



" 10th. To try whether any improvement can be made upon 

 the rollers of the flax-mills, so as to break the husk as much 

 as possible, and by that means render the separation between 

 it and the flax more easy. 



" llth. To try whether any improvement can be made in the 

 mode of scutching, so as to prevent the flax from being wasted 

 and broken in the operation. 



" N.B. I am of opinion improved rollers at the flax-mills, 

 with very small deep fluting, would render the scutching less 

 severe.* 



" 1.2th. To determine comparatively whether long or short 

 hickles make least refuse in dressing flax. I think short hickles 

 would dress it equally well and waste less of it. 



" 13th. To determine by fair trials whether the use of a great 

 number of hickles is more profitable than putting the flax 

 through only two, three, &c., beginning with very coarse ones 

 and ending with the finest. 



" Such are the points respecting flax management that seem 

 to me most deserving of experimental inquiry, and the 

 thorough investigation of which promises to afford sufficient 

 data for laying the foundation of a more perfect system than 

 the present. 



"ROBT. SOMERVILLE." 



Sincerely do I rejoice in being the instrument of drawing 

 from obscurity the above important letter. Important be- 

 cause, if the arguments it contains in favour of the cultivation 

 of flax were applicable to the times in which Mr. Somerville 

 lived, with how much greater force may they be urged upon 

 our present consideration, with a population nearly double, 

 and a yearly increase of about 400,000 a population for whom 

 there is no prospect of finding regular employment except 

 through the introduction of a new and permanent branch of 

 business. In a national point of view, one more suited to the 



* See Engravings in the Appendix. 



