CULTUIIE ni EKGLAKJX 7 



contend with the difficulty of finding a, very great scar- 

 city, if not an absolute deficiency, of skilled labourers. 

 He has to educate a set of men and women to execute a 

 series of nice and catching work, which they have never 

 seen done, and of which they have not the slightest 

 idea. 



The instances of this nature mentioned by Mr. Warnes 

 are sufficient to startle any one who has witnessed the 

 benefits derived from the flax-crops by the French and 

 the Flemings. " The progress of flax-culture,' ' he truly 

 observes, " has hitherto been much impeded by the total 

 ignorance of the labourers respecting the management of 

 the stalks, and the unwillingness of growers to incur the 

 expense of instruction. Many excellent crops have been 

 grown in different quarters upon every variety of soil, of 

 which, in some instances, the seed only was turned to 

 immediate account ; the stalks being mostly restacked to 

 await the chance of purchasers in their raw state, or of 

 practical aid to render them fit for market. Tons also 

 have been used for thatching, or thrown as litter into 

 cattle-yards, thus at once destroying the means of em- 

 ployment and the most profitable part of the crop ! As 

 an illustrative fact, I purchased, a few months since, two 

 tons thirteen hundredweight of Mr. T. Dolphin, of Knap- 

 ton Hall, which that gentleman had determined to use as 

 straw. The stalks were delivered at the steeping-pit, 

 and I paid five pounds six shillings for them. The after- 

 cost was eight pounds ; the yield of flax sixty-four stones ; 

 the value, including refuse and tow, nineteen pounds two 

 shillings ; the profit, five pounds sixteen shillings. Had 

 the fibre been fine, the profit would have been much 

 greater." 



The French flax-grower (with the exception of the 

 peasant, who only grows a small patch in his garden or his 

 patch of land), is relieved fromthe whole of the troublesome 

 burden which the subsequent treatment of the crop entails. 

 In the most prosperous flax-growing districts of France, 

 these difficulties are obviated by an easy arrangement. 

 It is the custom there for persons called liniers, or flax- 



