OF LINEN BY POWER LOOMS. 221 



of those who, when potatoes are cheap, get behind ditches to 

 enjoy their smoking propensities, and attend fairs and markets 

 In idleness, often keeping the yarns of two or three manufac- 

 turers sometimes for months in the loom and house before 

 returning them. I speak from experience, and I know the 

 necessity and advantage that must be derived by the spread of 

 the power-loom, in preference to the unsafe and uncertain 

 supply which linen manufacturers are obliged to depend on, 

 from distributing yarns ten or fifteen miles round about and 

 removed from their residences. I hope I may be favoured 

 with space in your widely circulated journal, in order that 

 my views, if thought sound, may serve the cause I advocate. 



"It is well known in Ballymena, Maghera, Gracehill, and 

 Ahoghill, that the firm of Ledwich and Dickson built a large 

 establishment in the latter place, and in 1837, 1838, and 

 1839, employed more weavers than any four houses in that 

 district in making 4-4ths and 7-8ths linen from 12 to 22, 

 both light and heavy cloth, in addition to having often above 

 1,000 in Banbridge, Lurgan, and the neighbourh ood, making 

 plain and fancy drills, damasks, diapers, and lawns. I 

 presume I may say (as I was the working man of that firm) 

 that I have some practical knowledge on the subject. Our 

 orders for goo'ds were considerable, and frequently we could 

 not execute them in reasonable time, owing to the delay of 

 cloth in the weaver's hand. On looking over our books in 

 the harvest of 1838, I found we had such a quantity of yarns 

 in the hands of weavers that, when added to about 4,000 

 worth of boiled stock in our warehouse in Donegall-street, 

 ready to be given out, the interest on the money locked up 

 in yarns so distributed was more than a moderate profit 

 would cover. I then resolved on having a factory and power- 

 looms, confident that I could overcome the suppos ed difficulty 

 in making good selvages, and equally confident, from inquiry 

 and calculations, that I could turn out more goods in twelve 



