THE BELFAST LINEN INDUSTRY. 413 



THE BELFAST LINEN INDUSTRY, 



Whether the art of linen-making was carried directly from Egypt to 

 Europe, or whether it was introduced by weavers from Carthage is doubtful ; 

 but it is certain that linen manufacture was first practised in Ancient Egypt. 

 That it was one of the earliest Egyptian arts is proved by the examination of 

 mummy cloths ; and the fineness of many of these wrappings shows that a 

 high degree of skill was attained in linen manufacture. The Egyptian 

 cloth, however, differs in structure from modern linen ; for while the weft 

 of the Egyptian linen often counts only one-third of the warp, the weft of 

 the modern material generally counts as many threads to the inch as the 

 warp. 



It is said that the Romans introduced linen-making into England soon 

 after their conquest of that country ; and though this is doubtful, it is 

 certain that flax culture was practised both in Great Britain and in Ireland 

 from an early date. Indeed by the Brehon Laws the Irish " Brughairs " or 

 farmers were obliged to learn and practise flax culture. Flax was, how- 

 ever, never extensively grown, and for the past half century the flax crop 

 area has shown a great and continued decline. In i860 there were 128,595 

 acres under this crop, and in 1864 the area so cultivated had increased to 

 over 300,000 acres, in consequence of the impetus given to the linen trade 

 by the scarcity of cotton ; but this increase was followed by an immediate 

 reaction, which has since continued, despite the fact that the moist, mild 

 climate of Ireland is well suited for flax growing. The area under this 

 crop reached its lowest level in 1898, when flax was grown on only 34,469 

 acres. In the following year, however, there was an increase of 520 acres, 

 and in 1900 the area had increased to 47,451 acres. In 1901 there was a 

 further increase of over 8,000 acres, the area under flax in that year being 

 55,471 acres. The diminution in the supply of the raw material has been 

 attributed amongst other causes, to the large supply of cheap fibre from 

 Russia, the better quality of the Belgian fibre, and the consequent unre- 

 munerative return to the farmer for the cultivation of the crop in Ireland. 



As is well known, a temperate climate appears to be the most congenial 

 to the production of a strong and fine fibre of flax. We are sorry to say, 

 that though our chmate does its duty to the flax plant, our farmers do not 

 quite equal to those of France, Belgium, or Holland, in the after processes 

 of pulling the plant, watering and scutching it. These operations have 

 been generally conducted in Ireland in a more or less careless manner, 

 involving a great loss to the farmer himself, and seriously injuring the linen 

 trade of the country. The process of scutching being generally conducted 

 in mills driven by water-power, often at a considerable distance from the 

 farmer's house, the unscutched flax has to be carted there, and remains often 

 for months unscutched and exposed to damage. In this connection it may 

 be mentioned that the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 is conducting experiments in the kind of soil and the manures best suited for 

 the flax plant. These two essentials in the successful growth of flax have 



