200 THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO 



sufficiently followed up to be an extensive source of employ- 

 ment for our labourers. 



" I am, dear Sir, your obedient servant, 



"W. Rous. 



"P.S. Where the flax has been grown for seed, generally 

 speaking, the fibre has not paid for the labour and cost. 

 Indeed, I have no proof of its having been profitable in a 

 single instance ; but there is some now working which promises 

 well." 



If any one has reason to rejoice at this account, I have : 

 because, notwithstanding its glaring defects, it tends to es- 

 tablish, not only the correctness of all my statements, but also 

 that of my arithmetical calculations. I refer to the second 

 number of my series dated August 2nd, headed " Value of the 

 Flax Crop to the grower ;" wherein I showed from English, 

 Irish, and Belgian reports, that the value per acre of good 

 flax would be 241. including all expenses, which is six shillings 

 less than the amount of Mr. Rous's crop. I also estimated our 

 best growing crops at 40 or 50 stone per acre ; and the flax at 

 8s. to 12^. or 15s. per stone, exclusive of the seed. The 

 accuracy of this estimate I rested on information derived from 

 personal inquiries in Ireland, from similar opportunities in 

 England, from reading authentic works, and from an extensive 

 correspondence. In pamphlets and public letters I laboured 

 to communicate my experience in easy and comprehensible 

 terms, in order that my most unlearned readers might profit. 

 I say laboured, because the scholar will acknowledge that the 

 difficulty of writing a few sentences of plain common sense is 

 greater than that of many pages of rhetorical flourish. 



I have no wish to lessen Mr. Rous's estimation of the prac- 

 tical men to whom he alludes. But, of his letter, I must 

 observe, that it will not raise their reputation either as men of 

 business, of figures, of facts, or of rhetoric; of business, 

 because they never attended either to the steeping, grassing, 

 or scutching of the flax in question ; of figures, because their 

 account is extremely defective in many items which the prac- 



