40 FLAX CULTURE 



not interfere with its manufacture in this 

 country?" 



A. "My opinion is that if there \\.i 

 $1000 duty on flax [per ton], it would not 

 make the slightest difference with farm- 

 ers. I have been four weeks among the 



larmers ol Mi-^oiiri .mil Illinois, and I 

 have asked them. 'What do you think 



of the present duty ? ' They say, ' We 

 do not trouble ourselves about it: we 

 rould not linden. ike the preparation of 

 flax fibre for manufacturing purposes ; 

 it is altogether out of our power to 

 do so : we have not the knowledge or 

 the time for it. 1 " l 



Anil later \vhen he was aj;ain asked re 



specting the farmers, he said, " The farmer 

 says, ' I cannot trouble myself about that, 

 because there is nobody who wants the 

 fibre. Nobody comes along and pays me 

 a reasonable price for it ; for if I was to 

 cultivate flax especially for its fibre, I would 

 have to bestow a great deal more, labor and 

 care on it, and have to sow four times M 



1 P. 995- 



