AS I NFL UENCED B Y LEG I SLA TION. 77 



Mr. Warden goes on to say that " the 

 linen trade in Ireland has progressed very 

 rapidly of late years, but it might have 

 extended still faster had the supply of the 

 raw material been more abundant." " The 

 great hindrance to the more extensive cul- 

 tivation of flax," he says, " is the ignorance 

 and prejudice of the farmers." He rec- 

 ommends the spinners and merchants to 

 take action to instruct the farmers, and 

 root out their prejudices, and quotes from 

 the "Trade Circular" for 1862, that the 

 want of a low-priced scutching-machine 

 is a serious obstacle to flax culture. 

 " Surely," he says, " the intelligence, the 

 skill, and the wealth of Ireland, will 

 speedily overcome this difficulty, and pro- 

 duce a low-priced, portable scutching-ma- 

 chine that will do the work cheaply, yet 

 efficiently." This all reads like an agri- 

 cultural report of the United States, or an 

 annual report of the Flax and Hemp Spin- 

 ners' and Growers' Association ; but it 

 hardly bears out the theory that an import 

 duty on raw flax will induce or encourage 



