316 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXVII. 



Chapter XXVII. 

 ON FLAX AND HEMP. 



The plants under tliis head are both productive of yarn for the manufac- 

 ture of cloth and ropes, as well as of seed ; which, when crushed, yields 

 large quantities of oil and cake of a very rich quality, in the same man- 

 ner as cole-seed. The former is very extensively cultivated in the north 

 of Ireland, where it is grown for the purposes of the linen manufacture; 

 both the soil and climate being peculiarly adapted to it, and by the employ- 

 ment which it affords, both in the cultivation of the crop, the preparation of 

 the yarn, and tlie weaving of the cloth, it has become the great source of 

 the superior prosperity of that portion of the country *, The growth of 

 hemp is, however, there but little attended to ; and is here almost confined 

 to the low lands of Cambridge, Himtingdon, and Lincolnshire, wiih some 

 of the most fertile parts of Somerset and the East Riding of Yorkshire : 

 in the two latter counties it has, however, been of late years ])artly aban- 

 doned, thouuh it undoubtedly might be grown with advantage upon any 

 well-drained bogs or peaty soils. The cultivation of both plants is, indeed, 

 considered highly profitable to the farmer, and would doubtless be greatly 

 so in a national point of view were it farther extended; but, independently 

 of the want of fitting soils in many districts, there are the weighty objec- 

 tions of their not returning any manure to the land, and of occasioning 

 both more expense and difficulty of management than is at all times con- 

 venient. 



FLAX 



Is an annual plant, indigenous to this climate, and though possessing many 

 varieties, which are spread over almost every part of the globe, yet only 

 that species known as the common jlax is here generally sown ; it 

 grows \vith a slender upright fibrous stem, from which the yarn is made, 

 and bears clusters of small blue flowers. Tlie soil to which it is most 

 appropriate is a rich alluvial or sandy loam, or a loose marie, neither too wet 

 nor too dry. Upon poor clays, or dry gravelly soils, it will not thrive ; 

 and if sown upon any land of an inferior kind, the ground should be abund- 

 antly dunged for the preceding crop, so as to bring it into a productive 

 state previous to the reception of the flax-seed ; for, otherwise, manure spread 

 at the time of sowing will have comparatively but little effect. The land 

 should, indeed, possess nearly the texture and firmness, the depth and de- 

 gree of moisture, suitable to good wheat land, and the cleanness of a well- 

 tilled summer-fallow ; but it should not be too rich, or the crop will be 

 coarse, and apt to become lodged, and large quantities of flax are grown 

 upon soils of a medium quality. 



It is sown in the common rotation, both before and after corn and other 

 crops, but the favourite plan is to put it in after newly broken-up maiden 

 pasture t- There is no crop for which the land should be better worked, 

 and if the stems be pulled up for the sole purpose of producing yarn, 



* Lambert's Obsen^ations on the Rural Affairs of Ireland, p. 119. 

 ^■ Ujion newly broken-up marsh land the following course has been followed : — 

 namely — 



1 Flax 3 Potatoes 5 Rape 7 Flax 



2 Rape 4 Flax 6 Potatoes 8^Vheat; 



and this, it is said, it will ctitniiily bear for ten years. — Lincolnshire Rep. 2nd edit, 

 p. 125. The tfFect of this, however, is not btated ; and flax ought cirtainly not to be 

 frequently repeated on the same ground. 



