156 DICKSON'S REPLY TO PROFESSOR LOWE'S 



carry us to new pursuits and experiments; and as no 

 intelligent man who has opportunities of forming a judgment 

 can have the least doubt but we could add three or four 

 millions sterling to the capital of our country by Flax- 

 cultivation, without running the slightest risk of over- 

 stocking the market, and not only double but treble it, if 

 we manufactured it into linen goods for exportation, it is 

 to be hoped that the landlord, the merchant and the farmer 

 will all take up the question, as it affects them all, because 

 it is a national question, and must, as a consequence, 

 benefit the majority of the people. Hoping you will give 

 space to these remarks, 



"I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



"J. HILL DICKSON. 



" Palmerston Place, Dublin. 



March, 1850. 



"P.S. After this, I hope Professor Lowe will not (like 

 another professor, of hair-dressing notoriety, in Fenchurch 

 Street, London) try to cut up Flax as close as Professor 



shaves ; for although the preparation of Flax is but 



imperfectly known in Cork, and Professor Lowe may 

 imagine that the services of his old acquaintances (the 

 old Scotch women) would be useful in the south of Ire- 

 land, I must beg to inform him, that we have still some 

 Irishmen more apt and sharp in practical undertakings than 

 either the professor or his old or young women, and Mr. 

 Dobbin's farming and Flax-growing, and his preparing of it, 

 proves the fact/' 



" FLAX CULTURE. MR. HILL DICKSON'S LETTER. 



"We have not seen the lectures of Professor Lowe, on 

 which Mr. Dickson passes such severe strictures. We, how- 

 ever, infer that the professor does not look upon the cultiva- 

 tion of Flax as so very profitable a branch of agriculture, as 

 some other more sanguine advocates of the more extended 



