REPORT OF THE FLAX SOCIETY. 335 



FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL FLAX AND AGRI- 

 CULTURAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, READ BY MR. FAR- 

 ROW, HONORARY SECRETARY TO THE IPSWICH BRANCH, IN 

 THE TEMPERANCE HALL OF THAT TOWN, ON FRIDAY, THE 

 GTH OF DECEMBER, 1844. PRESIDENT, THE RIGHT HON. LORD 

 RENDLESHAM. 



IN offering the First Report of this Association, your committee would 

 have to lament the general failure of the flax crop of the present year, 

 were it not for the reflection that the failure itself was attributable 

 solely to a dispensation of Providence, manifested in the protracted 

 drought ; solely, because in the preceding year several hundred acres 

 of flax were grown in Norfolk, Suffolk, and other counties, which, 

 from the continued rain, were, in most instances, too luxuriant. 

 Taking, therefore, into account the superabundance of rain on the one 

 hand, and the total want of it at the proper time on the other, it may 

 reasonably be assumed that, upon the average of seasons, the soil and 

 climate of England are well adapted to the growth of the important flax 

 plant. 



But in lamenting the loss of the fibre on account of the employment 

 that it would have afforded, there is at least some cause for congratula- 

 tion on account of the quantity and quality of linseed preserved ; 

 a circumstance of vast importance to the undertaking, seeing that, 

 under present inexperience, the growers must~mainly depend upon the 

 seed for remuneration. 



However divided opinions may be as to the establishment of flax 

 culture through the fibre alone, the seed alone, or both, the advocates 

 have abundant cause to exult in the fact, that linseed compounds are 

 rapidly superseding foreign oil-cake to fatten cattle ; and that the sys- 

 tem of box-feeding and summer-grazing is gradually extending in 

 Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Dorsetshire, and other counties, ensuring a 

 regular demand for linseed, such as will render it incumbent upon, if 

 not absolutely necessary for the British farmer, to supply from his own 

 resources. And as the seed cannot be obtained without the fibre, so 

 must the double crop be secured ; the linseed being placed to the far- 

 mer's account for fattening his cattle, and the fibre in juxta-position 

 with an unemployed population. Whether this fibre shall be used as 

 litter, and converted into manure, or appropriated to the employment 

 of the population, must be left to the common sense of the nation to 

 decide; remembering that in 1840 alone 1,253,240 cwt. of flax were 

 imported from Russia, Denmark, Prussia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, 



