IN THE PRESENCE OF FLAX MERCHANTS. 211 



machines were at work ; and the following is the report that 

 appeared in that journal the week after : 



MR. DICKSON'S METHOD OF PREPARING FLAX. 



"At a time when the skill and ingenuity of the farmer 

 are being taxed to the utmost to enable him to compete with 

 his foreign rival, and to maintain his position in the social 

 scale, every plan which proposes to aid him in the accom- 

 plishment of this object ought to command attention. Acting 

 under the influence of this feeling, we accepted an invitation 

 from Mr. Dickson, to pay a visit to his factory in Grove Street, 

 Deptford, and examine his process for the dressing of Flax, 

 which, he contends, is far superior, as well in its simplicity as in 

 its results, to any hitherto adopted in the United Kingdom. 



c * Without entering into the details of what we saw 

 because we do not know whether we should be justified in so 

 doing let us say at once that, as far as we are able to judge, 

 the plan which Mr. Dickson has matured, as the result of many 

 years' close application and experience, fully justifies him in as- 

 serting its superiority over those of Schenk, Warnes, or Watts. 



' ' In the first place the tedious, expensive, and difficult 

 process of steeping and retting is dispensed with. One con- 

 sequence of this is a much larger amount of marketable 

 produce. For example, out of one ton of green Flax-stalks 

 Mr. Dickson produces 920lbs. of fibre, that is, 5|lbs. out of 

 I4lbs. of stalks. When prepared by his liquid, these 5|lbs. 

 have produced 3lbs. 6ozs of very fine fibre. Now, by the 

 system adopted by the Belfast Society, 14lbs. of retted straw 

 will not produce more than Iflbs. of marketable fibre, and 

 Mr. Warnes does not, we believe, produce more by careful 

 hand- dressing. These simple facts prove at once the supe- 

 riority of Mr. Dickson's system. That gentleman, in a circular 

 of his own before us, says ' I can produce from one ton of 

 green Flax-stalks, 515lbs. of remarkably fine marketable fibre, 

 calculated for Flax and wool spinners; for as the tow is 



