" Our prefent way of managing home- 

 u grown flax is Ib bad, that it were better 

 " for our linen-manufacfture, if we railed 

 " none at all : For every fault, every failure 

 " in the flax, is an error in the firft concoc- 

 * 4 tion, not to be cured afterwards by any 

 ikill or labour. Yarn fpun of unripe flax 

 will never make good cloth ; and where it 

 is mixed with other yarn, the cloth is dif- 

 liklied. Flax fpoiled or difcoloured in the 

 watering, cannot be brought to that full 

 " white required in fine cloth, unlefs the 

 " cloth be ib much thinned and emptied, 

 ' that it is good for nothing ; and where it 

 " is mixed with good yarn, the cloth can ne- 

 " ver be of the fame colour. Unlefs we are 

 " at pains to reform our way of managing 

 " our lint, we had better purchafe it entirely 

 " from the Baltic, Holland and Flanders. 

 " But as we have been long in the practice 

 ' of railing of flax, we muft go on ; and if 

 ' we can be at a little more trouble, and feme 

 : fmall expence, we fhall reap from the' 

 " fame ground a third part at lead more flax 

 : than we do at prefent, and that too 30 per 

 6 cent, better in its quality. I ihall therefore 

 ' give 'a fliort account of the method ;, 





