FLAX AND HEMP HUSBANDRY. 



351 



since \shicb period no sensible alteration has 

 taken place. 



Ill England there were 169 mills, worked by 

 4.260 horse power, and employing 16,573 per- 

 eon."!. 



In Scotland 183 mills, worked by 4,845 horse 

 power, and employing 1~,S97 persons. 



In Ireland 40 mills, worked by 1,980 horse 

 power, and employing 9,017 persons. 



It is difficult to reconcile this official return 

 witli the estimate of Mr. Hall, just before 

 quoted ; as the proportion of home-spun and 

 woven linen goods can scarcely be so consid- 

 erable as to account for the discrepancy. 



Finally, the following extracts from official 

 tables will show, as far as documents allow, tlio 

 actual, or at least i-ecent, extent of the export 

 ti'ade in linen products. 



Export of Woven Linen Goods, in Yards. 



Years. 



1810 



1S15 



1820 



1825 



To Great To Far- 

 Britain, dgn parti 



:!2,.584,.'i45 

 37,980,359 

 4(1,318.270 

 52,559,678 



4,313,725 

 5,490,20(5 

 3,294,948 

 2,553.587 



Total 



36,898,270 

 43,482.565 

 43,613,218 

 55,113,265 



Re-Export of Irish Linen and Sail-Cloth, 

 FROM Great Britain to Foreign Parts, in 

 Yakds. 



1824. 

 1827. 

 1830. 

 1833. 



Irish 

 hiiitn. 



17,93.3,195 

 14,022,496 

 13,244.269 

 9,561,277 



Irish SaU 

 Cloth. 



1,593,291 

 2,211,529 

 1,922,211 



2,229,777 



Latterly an extensive trade with the Conti- 

 nent has sprung up, in tlie exportation of linen 

 yarns, replacing, to a certain extent, the export 

 of woven linens. The money values exported 

 were 



Years. 



1837. 

 1840. 

 1842- 



Liitcn. 



03.847 

 31,404 



Yarn. 



£3,164 

 172,602 

 169,449 



Such are the general conditions of this import- 

 ant branch of manufacture. It is needless for me 

 to point out how strenuously our efforts should be 

 directed to the extension of a branch of industry 

 which, in its various departments, afford.s, from 

 a ,t:iven surface of land, employment to a great- 

 er numb(;r, and a greater variety of individuals, 

 than any other branch af human occupation. 

 The agriculturist, the mechanist, an<l the chem- 

 ist, are all e<iuallv occupied with its prepara- 

 tion ; and, certainly, the natural circum.stanccs of 

 the country are such astoadajit it. in asingular- 

 ly perfect manner, for tlie development of the flax 

 and linen manufacture, to an indefinite extent. 



The linen manufacture has been, hitherto, al- 

 most exclusively confined to the north of Ire- 

 land. This does not ari.se from any physical 

 circumstances of soil or climate, or from the 

 greater facilities o( acce.ss to mechanical power : 

 on die contrary, the .soil of Ulster, if we except 

 the valley of the Lagan, and some .scattered dis- 

 tricts, is iiot, by any means, equal to the soils of 

 the south and ccmtre. The growth of this dc- 

 p;irtniont of industry in Ulster, is owing rather 

 to moral causes. Its population wa.s, essentially, 

 of a class devoted to indu.strial pursuits, and ea- 

 ger after the ind<!!)cndence and power which 

 pecuniary success confers, and whicli was willi- 

 iu their reach ; whilst in the south, tlie wretched 

 (7151 



remnants of feudal barbarism paralyzed all ten- 

 dency to improve. The lord was above indus- 

 try ; the slave was below it ; and hence, al- 

 though the circumstances of a fintilc soil, eassy 

 access to market-s, and abundance of motive 

 power, were, in themselves, favorable, the bless- 

 ings which nature presented were left unutilized, 

 by the ignorance and inertness of the people. 



In fact, if we consider the situation of those 

 countries in which the manufacture of linen and 

 other Flax products has become the character- 

 istic fact of their industrial history, we shall find 

 the soil and geographical condition quite differ- 

 ent from those of the north of Ireland. lu 

 Egypt, who.se dignitaries were clothed in pur- 

 ple and fine linen, and from which the culture 

 of Fla.x has spread over the civilized world, the 

 soil was formed by the mud carried down in the 

 overflowings of the Nile, and spread over the 

 surface of the lower countiy along its banks. 

 The soils of Belgium and Hoiland, the countries 

 now most remarkable for the excellence and 

 abundance of their Flax industry, have been 

 produced by the accumulated mud deposited by 

 the vast rivers, which, draining the greater part 

 of Europe, discharge their waters into the Ger- 

 man Ocean, by numerous channels. The riv- 

 ers which How into the Baltic afford, also, on 

 the low grounils along their banks, the seats of 

 the Flax Agriculture of Russia and Norlliern 

 Prussia ; antl, guided by these analogies, may 

 we not ask, where are the similar soils, or dis- 

 tricts, in our own countiy ? They are abundant 

 and available along the line of the principal 

 river. The lands hitherto liable to flood, by the 

 irregular ri.sings of the Shannon, but, by the im- 

 provement of its channel, about to be perma- 

 nently rendered available to Agriculture, amount 

 to not less than 32,-500 acres above Limerick, 

 whilst below that city, the caucasses, or marshy 

 grounds, of the extraordinary fertility men- 

 tioned by Wakefield, are to be found. Such 

 soils afford the most complete parallel to those 

 districts of Egypt and of Belgium, which have 

 been for ages the seats of the growth of Flax. 

 The water power at Killaloe, fully described 

 before, places at the hands of the manufac- 

 turer, the means of every mechanical prepara- 

 tion of the crop. Tlie river furnishes for 200 

 miles the most convenient access to domestic 

 markets, and the port places him under equally 

 favorable circumstances for the foreign trade. 

 So remarkable a combination of facilities for 

 industrial success is rarely to be met with. 



The Flax had formerly been actually culti- 

 vated to .some extent in certain parts of the 

 south and centre of Ireland, and the quantity of 

 produce obtained was found decidedly greater 

 than the average of the crops given in "the north 

 of Ireland. I am infonned by experienced per- 

 .sons, also that the ijuality of the fibre wasof a deli- 

 cacy but seldom met with in the ordinary Flax of 

 Ulster. Neither the cultivation nor the manu- 

 facture was adopted by the peojde witii the en- 

 ergy ami patience which alone can lead to suc- 

 cess. The encoiu'a.irement to industry was un- 

 happily associated with other objects, \Adiich 

 deprived it of all power of really bettering the 

 condition of the people ; which interposed be- 

 tween tho.se who might have served as efficient 

 teachers, and those who were to derive instruc- 

 tion, a barrier which, it is to be hoped, the ex- 

 perience of centuries l>as at last .«hown cannot 

 be removed by measures ef cnielty or menace. 



Connected with the cultivation "of Flax, as a 

 departmant of Agriculture, and of subsequent 



