302 DICKSON ON 



philosophers delighted in husbandry as much as they deprecated 

 war, and one of them has stated that the management of a 

 farm was of more importance than the conducting of an army. 

 Many differences of opinion exist relative to the introduction 

 of Flax cultivation into Ireland. Some historians tell us that 

 the Phoenicians first taught the Celts how to grow the fibre, 

 spin the yarn, and weave the cloth ; others say that the art 

 was introduced in the twelfth century ; and a third set of 

 opinionists tell us that the system of Flax-culture had no 

 existence until after the fourteenth century. We do not find 

 any account of Flax having been grown in England until the 

 reign of Henry VI., when the Earl of Hertford weilded the 

 baton in Britain's cabinet. The culture of the plant was then 

 enforced, as it appeared, to raise material for fishing nets. 

 Dressing the straw after the steeping process was then little 

 known, and scutching had no existence, the fibre being separated 

 from the woody substance by hand labour alone. Macpherson 

 informs us that Flax was grown, and linen woven in 

 .the days of Henry III., some time between 1216 and 

 1272. Leaving those points to be settled by those who have 

 more leisure, we may state that, as Ireland exported linen to 

 England in pretty large quantities during the fifteenth century, 

 there must at that period have been an extensive area of land 

 set apart for Flax-culture we mean extensive, as compared 

 with the quantity of soil then under the spade and plough. 

 The earliest statistical record of Flax-growing in Ireland, so 

 far as we have been able to discover, does not extend beyond 

 1696. That year was rendered memorable because of King 

 William* having repealed the taxation previously imposed on 

 all Flax, hemp, thread, yarn, or linen exported from Ireland 

 to England or Scotland. It appears that the quantity of land 



* This is the King who is still condemned by the Irish traitors; but 

 especially by those who, under the name f Ribbon-men, are of the Phosnix 

 Club fraternity. 



