236 PICKSON ON THE PROFITS OF FLAX 



peculiar method of native preparation, and not being decom- 

 posed by the usual mode of retting, has been prepared by 

 Dickson's liquid, and turns out to be equal, in strength and 

 quality, to Flemish Flax at 100 per ton. 



Archangel Flax A sample of this, had from a mer- 

 chant in the city at 62 per ton, produced fibre as fine as 

 some kinds of silk, when prepared by the machines and 

 liquid > and has been valued at 200 per ton for the long 

 fibre, by a Flax importer. 



New Zealand Flax This was sent by the Society of 

 Arts, who offer fifty guineas premium for the machine best 

 calculated to prepare it. The 56lbs. sent produced by machi- 

 nery 171bs. 7ozs. clean long fibre, unretted, worth 60 per 

 ton; 6lbs. 14ozs, short fibre, unretted, worth 36 per ton; 

 9lbs. 2ozs. tow, unretted, worth 30 33lbs. 7ozs ; waste, 

 22lbs. 9ozs. in dressing total, 56lbs. The above Flax, when 

 prepared by the liquid, is as fine as Dutch Flax at 80 

 per ton. 



It is rather surprising that the people of Canada, with a 

 population increasing at the rate of 45 per cent, in five 

 years, do not appear to notice the advantages they may have 

 by turning their attention to Flax-cultivation, when they 

 must see by our English, Scotch, and Irish journals that Irish 

 hand-scutched Flax, usually sold at from 5s. 6d. to 6s. per 

 stone of 16lbs. 5 is now 10s. 3d., and mill-scutched, formerly 

 from 7s. to 9s., is now from 10s. to 16s.* per stone. The 

 reader may form some idea of the rising prosperity of Canada 

 by the following extract : 



"In the year 1842 the total revenue of Canada was 

 365,000; in 1850 it was 704,200; and in 1856 had 

 reached 1,238,700. According to the census of 1851, the 

 population was 1,842.260, and by that of 1857 it was 



* The price in Armagh, 1864, is from 7s. togs. 6d. per stone for mill- 

 scutched Flax, and 5s. 9d. to 8s. per stone for hand-scutched Flax. _ 



