THE FARMERS' CABINET, 

 AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to the culture bestowed upon It." 



Fol. v.— No.9.] 



4th mo. (April,) 15th, 1841. 



[Whole No. 75. 



KIMBER & SlIARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AXD PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Flax, etc. 



" CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME." 



The cultivation of flax, which formerly 

 was deemed an object of importance, has for 

 a long series of years been almost entirely 

 abandoned throughout our country, although 

 it is understood large quantities of the article 

 in a dressed state, and immense quantities of 

 the seed, and the oil expressed from it, are 

 annually imported from foreign countries at 

 a great cost to the nation. 



The soil and climate of much of our coun- 

 try are peculiarly adapted to the production 

 of this plant, particularly in the west, where 

 the soil is rich and grain is low, and where 

 it could be cultivated to the greatest advan- 

 tage. Modern impfovements have been made 

 in machinery, and in preparing this article 

 for manufacture, and it is now ascertained, 

 beyond doubt, that it can be spun and wove 

 with nearly or quite the same facility as cot- 

 ton. The improved preparing and bleaching 

 processes give it almost the fineness and soft- 

 ness of silk ; and the impression is, that no- 

 thing is wanting to introduce the manufac- 

 ture on a large scale, but the fostering hand 

 of a wise administration of government to 

 counteract the effect of the six cents a day 

 labour of Europe until it fairly takes root and 

 becomes established. Plain linen goods of 

 all descriptions are imported duty free, though 

 they materially interfere with the consump-! 

 tion of our domestic cotton fabrics, and during! 

 the year 1839 the invoice price of the quan-l 

 tity imported into the United States, was| 

 $7,750,336; an impost duty of 25 per cent., i 

 it is believed, would have reduced this amount 

 to one-third, and have increased the use of 

 cotton goods of our own production in a cor- 

 responding degree. 



The seed of flax possesses properties which 

 render it indispensable for making oil for 

 paints; and as food for some descriptions of 

 animals in limited quantities, and under a 

 proper and judicious administration of it there 



Cab.— Vol. V.— No. 9. 



is no article superior to it. Yet, strange as 

 it may appear, flaxseed is admitted to import- 

 ation free of duty; and tens of thousands of 

 bushels of it are every year introduced into 

 these United States from Calcutta, just round 

 exactly on the other side of the globe ! The 

 poor East Indians who cultivate it for, and 

 send it to us in such immense quantities, must 

 suppose we live in a miserable country in- 

 deed, when we apply to them for flaxseed. 

 When I was first informed of these importa- 

 tions I had doubts of their truth, but on in- 

 quiry of those who express the oil for paints 

 on a large scale, it was verified far beyond 

 expectation. One manufacturer of the largest 

 class informed me, that every bushel he had 

 used for the year previous, came from the 

 East Indies. 



The seed thus imported, and the expressed 

 oil, which is introduced in large quantities 

 from Holland and Great Britain, cost us con- 

 siderably upwards of a million of dollars an- 

 nually; the oil alone cost, in 1839, 711,389 

 dollars. 



It requires a rich country, indeed, to aflJbrd 

 such vast importations from abroad, free of 

 duty, of articles which our soil and climate 

 so well favour the production of, in almost 

 any quantities ; but we are such lovers of free 

 trade, that we admit free foreign competition 

 with our agriculturists, although nearly every 

 article we send abroad pays a heavy duty, 

 sometimes more than the original cost, before 

 it enters into foreign consumption. 



I like free trade in its widest sense ; but 

 then it must be free every ivhere, in Europe 

 as well as in America, to suit my taste, and 

 come up to what we agricultural republicans 

 consider reciprocal justice. 



Many of our planters and farmers in the 

 South and West raise large quantities of to- 

 bacco, and it is deemed a valuable source of 

 revenue to them ; yet the duties paid on this 

 article on its being shipped to any part of Eu- 

 rope is several times the first cost of it in this 

 country. Any one would suppose that this 

 favoured country could supply itself with to- 

 bacco in all its forms of manufacture ; yet we 

 find, by referring to the report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury, that there was import- 

 ed in 1839, segars, the cost of which was the 

 enormous sum of $1,026,740 ! ! ! 

 Now, putting the cost of our plain linens, 



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