78 FLAX CULTURE 



farmers to raise flax for fibre, or justify 

 those who are clamoring for the reten- 

 tion of the duty on flax, in pointing to 

 the success of English protective meas- 

 ures in supplying the home-market with 

 domestic flax. It is a consideration worthy 

 of note also, that, in spite of this govern- 

 mental protection to linen in Ireland, flax- 

 growing has not enriched the people who, 

 under the fostering care of England, have 

 become almost a nation of paupers. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



This digression into the history of flax- 

 growing in Great Britain has led us away 

 from the examination of the comparison 

 of the protective legislation in England 

 and America. As a matter of fact, during 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 

 while England was granting bounties and 

 compelling the growing of flax, the Eng- 

 lish Colonies were doing the same thing in 

 the same way, and, in some cases, on a much 

 larger scale. They also received material 

 aid from the mother country, which was 



