84 FLAX CULTURE 



setts, as an entry in the colonial records 

 in 1640 reads : 



" Whereas yt is obserued as experience hath made 

 appeare that much grownd w th in these liberties may 

 be well improued in hempe and flaxe, and that we 

 might in tyme haue supply of lynnen cloath amongst 

 o r selves ... it is Ordered that . . . every family that 

 keeps a Teeme . . . shall sow ... at lest on rood 

 of hempe or flaxe ... or in default thereof are to 

 vndergoe the censure of the Courte." J 



In 1725 the exclusive right to make 

 canvas in the province was granted to 

 Richard Rogers. 2 



In Virginia, strenuous efforts were made 

 to promote the cultivation of flax. In 

 1673 an Act was passed for the encourage- 

 ment of flax-growing, and the develop- 

 ment of the home market. It reads : 



" An Act for the advancement of the Manufactory 

 of fflax and hempe. 



" Forasmuch as it conduceth to the well being of 

 any country that the necessities thereof be supplyed 

 from their own industry within themselves, and that 

 the lesse they have occasion for from abroad, the lesse 

 will be their dependance on forreigne supplies whereof 



1 Colonial Records of Connecticut, p. 61. 2 i Bishop, p. 335. 



