102 DICKSON ON FLAX AS A 



much more it exhausts the soil than a crop of wheat, or to 

 answer this question how much manure will it take to bring 

 the ground into the same condition after growing Flax that it 

 would be in if it had been sown with wheat ? It is only in 

 this way we can come to anything like a correct idea of the 

 subject, and, as I have said before, I have had as abundant a 

 crop of oats, and also clover, after Flax, as ever I had after 

 wheat or barley. I challenge the opponents of Flax to 

 answer this question, and then we can calculate the expenses 

 of restoration, and the means we have of doing it by growing 

 Flax ; for, according to every calculation I have seen, showing 

 the expense and the profit on wheat or any other crop, there 

 is none to be compared with even a middling crop of Flax, as 

 the most remunerating crop for the farmer and as I am not 

 confined to the quotation of one, two, or three experiments, in 

 order to prove the fact, I shall give another instance of what 

 may be made by its cultivation. 



" The Rev. G. Ash, Glebe, Ballaghy, Ireland, in writing to 

 the Secretary of the Belfast Flax Society, to tell him of the 

 success of his first experiment, says : 



" ' I sowed thirty- three pecks of seed on three acres and 

 three roods of ground, Irish measure, and I have had 236 

 stone of 16lbs., or in Armagh-market stones 266J. I have 

 two sacks grown from the same seed saved from my own 

 sowing, and I have two tons of linseed meal, which saves me 

 purchasing bran, &c. 9 



1 ' Here is the first experiment. A gentleman unacquainted 

 with Flax-growing sows 13^ bushels of seed on about five 

 English acres, and as 266 J stone, or 53J stone to the acre, 

 two sacks of seed and two tons of meal ; now, as it is well known 

 that the seed, if properly saved, will pay RENT AND ALL 

 EXPENSES, we must reckon Mr. Ash had for his trouble, profit 

 as follows : 266J stones of Flax, say 8s. per stone, 106 8s. Od. 

 Added to this proof of the benefits derivable from Flax 



