96 FLO:. 



soon as it is pulled and dried, the seed of course, as well 

 as all the refuse, is the property of the latter tradesman. 

 The farmer, therefore, is unable to return any portion of 

 the crop directly to the land in the shape of manure. 

 This has been urged as a great objection to flax-growing 

 (on the system of having fiaxmen or factors act as the 

 preparers of flax, instead of the farmers themselves), 

 especially by English landlords ; but it really is not a 

 valid one. By indirect means, any exhaustion which the 

 land may have suffered, is repaired. The ready cash 

 which the farmer receives for his flax leaves him an 

 ample margin to devote to the purchase of manure; and 

 a proof that the system cannot be in the end a ruinous 

 one, is adduced by the fact that very many large flax- 

 growers are themselves the owners of the soil which pro- 

 duces it. 



The linier sells the linseed that is thrashed out on his 

 premises, first for seed-flax to such farmers as do not think 

 it necessary, that year, to procure imported seed from 

 Eussia or elsewhere ; and secondly, to a very large 

 amount, to the oil millers, to make linseed oil. Oil-mills 

 in the north of Prance are incalculable in number, and 

 furnish employment to a large body of respectable men, 

 by the means of very simple machinery. It is true there 

 are here and there grand establishments, furnished with 

 every ingenious contrivance which mechanical science is 

 able to suggest ; but the great majority are merely post 

 windmills of rude construction, approached by ricketty 

 wooden steps bounding at every blow of the internal 

 machinery, but which, nevertheless, fulfil their office ex- 

 ceedingly well. 



Exactly the same description of mill crushes the seeds 

 of various plants, extracting oil indiscriminately from 

 colza, cameline, and linseed. The whole apparatus is 

 nothing but a system of apparently ungainly pestles and 

 mortars. On entering a mill, you behold to the left a 

 range of about half-a-dozen mortars, cut out of strong 

 solid timber, and lined at the bottom with thick copper, 

 la each of these is pounding, a pestle, a long beam of 



