INTRODUCTION: 9 



tion, home-grown flax being of such in- 

 significant amount as to be inappreciable. 

 The farmer is asked to turn aside from the 

 cultivation of hay, with an annual product 

 of nearly three hundred million dollars; 

 potatoes, exceeding fifty million dol- 

 lars ; or cotton, with three or four hundred 

 million dollars worth : in order that he 

 may supply two million dollars worth of 

 flax! 



What is the inference that is permissible 

 from these data, namely : the increase in 

 the growth of flax fibre in the United States 

 from less than 5,000,000 pounds in 1860 to 

 over 27,000,000 pounds in 1870, and the 

 subsequent decline to less than 2,000,000 

 pounds in 1880? The rise and fall in 

 supply having been exactly coincident with 

 the shortness or abundance of cotton, 

 and the consequent greater or less demand 

 for a substitute therefor, it is fair to ascribe 

 the increased or diminished supply of 

 domestic flax to the varying vicissitudes 

 incident to the raw cotton supply ; the 

 inevitable conclusion is, that the effect of 

 the duty on scutched and hackled flax upon 

 domestic production is absolutely nil, and 



