128 DICKSON ON HIS FLAX MILLS 



as it was in 1849, and having had nothing but Joss of time and 

 expense in Dublin, I returned home in 1851 with a view to 

 finally finishing my mills to be worked by hand, steam, or wafer- 

 power, and now 1 am, in 1864, prepared to supply his lordship 

 with machinery that cannot be equalled in Ireland for the pre- 

 paration of Flax, Hemp, or similar fibres for Flax-spinners 

 purposes, and now that the Irish farmers, especially those 

 in Leinster, Munster and ConnaugJit, who have been induced to 

 increase from 6,752 acres last year to 16,936 acres this year, 

 1864, it must be gratifying to the noble Earl to know that 

 there can be no mistake in the fact, that an additional market 

 for Flax is certain to be had in Lancashire for the additional 

 supply over last year, if parties in Ireland will only persevere, 

 as I have done, to make Flax become in a great measure a 

 substitute for cotton; that it can be done I am prepared to 

 prove, and it must be evident to every man that wishes to see 

 Ireland prosperous, that at no time for the last fifty years 

 has there been such an opening or such an opportunity as at 

 this moment for drawing more closely the two great interests of 

 the two countries together (the agricultural and the manu- 

 facturing) by the great connecting link of Flax, and as once 

 it is properly introduced and spun on cotton machinery and 

 the value of the superior article known, the slave grown 

 cotton, unless for ladies dresses, can readily be dispensed with 

 for every household purpose. 



At a meeting of the Belfast Flax Society, presided over by 

 the Marquis of Downshire, the late Mr. James Brown, of 

 Donacloney, bleacher and manufacturer ,of damask and 

 diaper, when alluding to a change in his views on the Flax 

 subject, said " When the late Lord Downshire called on 

 him to solicit his co-operation and support of the society, his 

 answer was that he would give it all the opposition in his 

 power; as he then thought that to sow Flax the farmer 

 would be only robbing his land. However, on mature 



