414 THE BELFAST LINEN INDUSTRY. 



not always received the attention required. The system of retting, or 

 rotting, in dug-out ponds, is primitive, and is the same as the inferior " blue"' 

 system in Belgium. Double-retting, in a slowly running river, as carried to 

 perfection in Belgium, at Courtrai, in the river Lys, is nowhere practised 

 (legally) in Ireland. With the discovery of the retting bacterium, and the 

 conditions of its life, by Winogradsky, it is hoped that some artificial system 

 of retting may be commercially possible ultimately. The valuable manures 

 contained in the retting water, and the flax seeds, so useful as sources of oil, 

 oil cake, and manure, are at present generally lost in Ireland. An inquiry 

 instituted in igoo, by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland, showed that, as a rule, the flax seed imported (very Uttle 

 home-grown is used), is fairly pure and of good germinating power, but that 

 it is inferior in weight, indicating that the seed imported is not allowed to 

 ripen fully in the field, but is the seed taken from the flax plants when the 

 fibre is at its best for textile purposes, and before the plants and their seeds 

 are quite ripe. The linen industry of Belfast and the surrounding district 

 thrives well, but its supply of raw flax fibre is now largely continental. 



Up to the end of the seventeenth century neither the cultivation of flax 

 nor the manufacture of linen appears to have obtained much footing in 

 England, as it was then a question whether it would be for the benefit of 

 the country or not. People were afraid that it would interfere with what 

 was called " our noble and ancient woollen manufacture." Though twenty 

 acres of land were required to obtain wool for setting to work the same 

 number of hands which an acre of flax would employ, yet it was stated that 

 " the woollen manufacture would be found to employ by far the greater 

 number of hands in the end, and yield the most profit to the public, as well 

 as to the manufacturers." On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 

 1685, it was recorded that about seventy thousand Protestant artificers 

 from France settled in England, where they introduced new manufactures 

 and improved old ones. Linen, for which they had long been famous, was 

 among- these new industries. 



In the history of Ireland linen-making is very similar. The industry was 

 carried qn from an early time — it was certainly practised in the thirteenth 

 century — and in the fifteenth century linen cloth was exported to England. 

 In this connection the following verse from an old work written about 1430, 

 and dealing with the trade of Chester is interesting :— 



" Heides and fish — salmon, hake, herring — 

 Irish wool and linen cloth, faldinge 

 And marterns, good be her marchandie ; 

 Herts hides, and others of venerie. 

 Skins of otter, squirrel, and Irish hare, 

 Of sheepe, lambe, and foxe, is her chaffare, &c., &c. 

 Fells of hides and conies great plentie." 



We know too that O'Neill and the other Irish chieftains who appeared at 

 the court of Elizabeth were " clothed in vestures of yellow linen," but it was 

 not, however, until the destruction of the woollen trade that linen-making 

 assumed any importance in this country. In 1636 Strafford brought over 

 Dutch farmers to instruct the Irish in the best methods of flax culture, and 

 though his efforts were doubtless caused by his desire to more effectually 

 kill the woollen trade — by supplanting it — still he proved his sincerity in 

 wishing the linen trade well by investing a large private sum in the project. 



