110 DICKSON ON FLAX AS A 



Now, as it appears by Mr. Beamish's statement that Mr. 

 Stephen says if a corn crop follow Flax, the effect of such a 

 system will oblige its cultivators to abandon it altogether, I 

 will just beg attention to a few observations made by a gentle- 

 man last spring at the Markethill Agricultural Meeting, in 

 Ireland, as a proof that clover and grass, and thin oats of the 

 best quality, have been grown after Flax, 



Mr. Herd: "I have had much experience in both 

 draining and subsoiling these eight or nine years past. In 

 Gosford demesne we have made nearly 100 miles of drains. 

 To mention all the benefits arising from furrow draining 

 would take up too much time ; every practical farmer knows 

 when his land is wet he can neither put in his crop in season, 

 nor take it out; neither will it ripen regularly, presenting 

 always a number of green patches. He must, consequently, 

 lose one part of the crop by waiting for the other, and at the 

 same time, will not have more than half a crop for all his 

 labour and expense. I shall merely call your attention to one 

 field which I furrow-drained and subsoil-ploughed, about five 

 years ago ; it is well known to several gentlemen here present 

 that worse land could scarcely be found. I am sure that a 

 farmer who had fifty acres of the same kind (without paying 

 any rent for it) could not make a comfortable living off it. 

 After being furrow-drained and subsoil-ploughed the first 

 year I put in turnips, and in part of that field I had thirty- 

 nine tons of Swedish turnips on the English acre. I have 

 since had an excellent crop of Flax and oats, and two crops of 

 clover and grass off the same field, and last season it grew a 

 crop of oats which averaged in length from six feet to six feet 

 three inches. His lordship's schoolmaster had half an acre for 

 a potatoe-garden off this field, which was not drained, but had 

 been manured successively for seven years, and this year I 

 got that half acre into the field, and the fact is, there were 

 only about two stooks on it (of inferior quality) for every 



