FLAX SOWN ON NEWLY BROKEN- UP LAND. 265 



stances. I answer, quite the contrary; for it is only the 

 continuation of a system long adopted at Trimingham, and 

 which I have repeatedly laid before the public. One difference, 

 however, is observable viz., that, in former accounts, I de- 

 scribed the profits arising from the use of grain, while now I 

 relate those derived from straw ; or in other words, I, this year, 

 sold the peas, and gave the straw to the cattle. 



The stalks of beans are said, by chemists, to be equal to 

 hay ; if so, they are superior to the straw of peas, and may be 

 used instead. On some soils beans will flourish where neither 

 peas nor turnips can repay; but I have never yet seen the 

 land upon which either grew, that would not produce lin- 

 seed. 



In this neighbourhood abundant crops are grown on the 

 worst of soils; for instance, two acres of newly broken-up 

 heath land were sown upon the estate of Robert Marsham, Esq., 

 of Stratton Strawless, and produced about thirty-eight bushels 

 of excellent seed, 75 stone 12 Ibs. of good flax, 5 stone of 

 ordinary, and 4 stone of tow, with a considerable quantity of 

 refuse, fil for coarse sacks, ropes, &c. The steward, Mr. Bow- 

 man, gave chief part of the linseed to cattle, and sold the 

 remainder at 7s. Qd. per bushel. 



Recently, all the best flax has been disposed of at 55. per 

 stone, and re-sold to Mr. Fisk, twine-spinner, Siderstrand, 

 near Cromer, at 5s. 6d. y or at the rate of 441. per ton ; valuing, 

 therefore, the ordinary flax and tow at half-price, and the seed 

 only at 6s. 3d. per bushel, the crop exceeds 167. per acre. The 

 full account of expenses I have not received, but estimating 

 them at six or seven pounds per acre, a greater amount of 

 profit, clear of rent, &c. was realized, than can now be obtained 

 from wheat upon the finest land. 



As flax, therefore, will flourish upon any soils favourable to 

 beans and peas, and as the seed of the former, incorporated 

 with the stalks and straw of the latter, will sustain and fatten 

 cattle independent of turnips and oil- cake, the policy of sowing 

 such land with flax, beans, and peas, instead of allowing it to 

 be fallow, must be evident. The straw of grain may possibly 

 answer the same purpose. 



I am now using a proportion of barley-straw, with that of 



