72 FLAX CULTURE 



Mr. Warden states that for fifteen years 

 no one claimed a premium in England, 

 and but few in Scotland ; and he cites as 

 his authority the thirteenth Report of the 

 Commissioners for Examining the Public 

 Accounts, dated March 18, 1785.* 



Compulsion and bounties have alike 

 been unavailing to turn the attention of the 

 English farmer to flax-growing ; and Mr. 

 Warden, writing in 1864, says 1 that "at 

 the present time, the quantity of flax grown 

 in England is insignificantly small. Many 

 counties produce none at all. Dorset 

 . . . and a few others grow small quanti- 

 ties, and in certain portions of Yorkshire 

 a little more attention is paid to the culti- 

 vation ; and although the quality of what 

 is raised is good, the quantity is very 

 much less than it ought to be." He goes 

 on to quote from the annual report of 

 Mr. Baker, a factory inspector, who says, 

 " We can neither produce from abroad (?) 

 nor induce our farmers to grow the raw 

 material in sufficient quantity. The same 



1 P- 372. ' pp. 378, 379- 



