144 



FLA 



FLA 



vantage over Ireland, Flanders, 

 or the north of Europe, where flax 

 is dried on hurdles, over a peat 

 fire, in ovens, or kilns, requiring 

 great care in regulating the heat, to 

 prevent injury. All this trouble 

 and hazard is obviated by our dry 

 atmosphere, and keen north-west 

 winds. Dr. Deane estimated the 

 expense of dressing flax by hand at 

 one third of the product. I be- 

 lieve the present price does not 

 vary much from his estimate. A 

 respectable gentleman fromDutch- 

 ess County, New- York, informed 

 me, that mills or machines, impel- 

 led by water, have been erected 

 there, that break, and completely 

 dress the flax for a toll of one 

 tenth ! It is said one or more of 

 them are in operation in the wes- 

 tern part of this State. These 

 mills were invented in Scotland, 

 and are now said to be brought to 

 great perfection. They are erect- 

 ed in all directions in the princi- 

 pal flax districts in Ireland, and not- 

 withstanding the low price and li- 

 mited demand for labour, are re- 

 sorted to by the poorer classes of 

 people, the dressing by hand being 

 mostly abandoned. There are 

 machines in England that dress the 

 flax immediately from the field, 

 without any preparation whatever. 

 An account of them may be found 

 in the 5th vol. of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Journal. It appears 

 by the report of a Committee of 

 the House of Commons, that in 

 1817, they were in successful op- 

 eration. A man and three chil- 

 dren impelled the machines and 

 dressed sixty pounds a day. Should 

 (hey be susceptible of the applica- 



tion of water or steam power, ia 

 any degree proportionate, the ad- 

 vantage may be incalculable; but 

 in the present inquiry, we place 

 these machmes, however desirable, 

 entirely out of the question. 

 Product. 



" It is not uncommon in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, to obtain eight 

 hundred pounds of flax from an 

 acre ! Six hundred pounds is esti- 

 mated, in some districts, as an 

 average ; but it should be observ- 

 ed that little if any seed is obtain- 

 ed. The average crop in New- 

 England, as far as our information 

 extends, cannot be estimated at 

 more than two hundred pounds,and 

 six or eight bushels of seed. (We 

 do not include the rich bottoms on 

 the Connecticut and some other 

 rivers.) Dr. Deane was of opinion 

 that four htmdred pounds might be 

 calculated on with proper man- 

 agement. 



" We think that four hundred 

 pounds of good clean flax, and eight 

 or ten bushels of seed, may fairly 

 be assumed as a medium crop on 

 favourable soils, where the culture 

 becomes such an object as to make 

 other farming operations subservi- 

 ent to it, and due attention is paid 

 to change of seed. 



" Those who grow flax to any 

 extent are of opinion, that the seed, 

 at the price it has been for some 

 years past, pays for all the labour 

 bestowed on the crop to the time 

 the flax is ready to be prepared or 

 rotted. 



" If we are correctly informed, 

 flax of a fair quality cannot be im- 

 ported from Ireland for less than 

 fourteen cents per pound. And 



