OF FLAX SCUTCH-MILLS IN IRELAND. 233 



RUSSIAN HEMP AND FLAX V. ITALIAN HEMP 

 AND INDIAN FIBRES. 



To make more public the merits of rny patent machines, 

 and patent liquid process, I invited a number of London and 

 Liverpool merchants, in the summer of 1855, to witness my 

 mode of operating on Bombay hemp, by re-dressing through 

 the machines. Also working on Italian hemp, in the green 

 unretted stalks, 12ft. long, and green Flax-straw. Amongst 

 those present I had Mr. Crisp, the proprietor of the Agricul- 

 tural Magazine, who gave the following report : 



" We have great pleasure in being able to call the atten- 

 tion of landed proprietors, and British farmers especially, to a 

 subject that has just commanded our own immediate observa- 

 tion, and which most assuredly deserves also their serious 

 consideration, inasmuch as, from all we are given to under- 

 stand, Italy has been going a-head of us for the last twelve 

 months, by stepping in and contracting to supply Her 

 Majesty's government with hemp for naval purposes, and thus, 

 as it were, to be the very first to order, as well as to export, 

 the original and only machines ever invented in this country 

 that will finally prepare and furnish hemp and Flax without 

 skilled labour, and (what is of far more importance) without 

 steeping, consequently decomposition is wholly avoided, and 

 the fibre is thus left in its natural state uninjured, and more 

 than one-third in weight is obtained. 



" We have inspected Flax, Hemp, Indian Rheea, China 

 and Assam Grass, Pine Apple, Aloe, and other fibres, pre- 

 pared in large quantities, at the office in the city, and also at 

 the Works of the Patentee, Mr. J. Hill Dickson, Grove Street, 

 Deptford, and have no hesitation in saying we could not have 

 imagined the improvements possible. We have no doubt of 

 the immense value of the invention, and recommend that 

 those concerned in the commercial and agricultural interests 



