AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 19 



by Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and 

 other States. 1 In 1719 a large immigra- 

 tion of Scotch-Irish from Londonderry to 

 New Hampshire improved the colonial 

 knowledge of the cultivation and manu- 

 facture of flax. 2 A series of papers be- 

 tween 1787 and 1791, by Tench Coxe, 

 Commissioner of the Revenue, shows the 

 manufacture " in a household way" of all 

 sorts of linen goods. In the first nine 

 months of 1791 he reports the manufac- 

 ture, " in a family way," of 25,265 yards of 

 linen cloth in Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island alone. The census of 1810 shows 

 the production for the census year, of 

 21,211,262 yards of linen made in families. 

 Of this amount New York produced 

 5,303,000 yards; Pennsylvania, 3,000,000; 

 Connecticut, 2,250,000; and New Hamp- 

 shire, 1,000,000 yards. The flax was in 

 most cases grown by the families that 

 manufactured the linen. 3 Sixty years ago 

 Connecticut flax was strong, clean, and 



1 Rep. of Dept. of Ag. for 1862, p. 119. 2 Ibid. 



3 Rep. of Dept. of Ag. for 1877, p. 176. 



