FLAX. 5 



lories from our own resources. But although it 

 has been partially grown for a long period in Eng- 

 land as well as in Scotland, we have always been 

 supplied from foreign countries with the greater part 

 of our demand. In 1531 a statute was enacted, 

 requiring that for every sixty acres of land fit for 

 tillage, one rood should be sown with flax or hemp- 

 seed *. In later times the legislature attempted to 

 promote the cultivation of these plants by promising 

 rewards and advantages. Both these measures be- 

 long to the infancy of sound political knowledge, and 

 were devised to avoid the imaginary evil of being 

 dependant upon other countries. 



Throughout the whole of the last century, bounties, 

 with various modifications, were granted on the im- 

 portation of undressed flax from the British colonies 

 in America. For the encouragement of the home 

 cultivation, an additional duty was laid, in 1767, on 

 foreign linen, which yielded a revenue of ,15,000, 

 and this sum it was proposed to divide in premiums 

 among successful cultivators of hemp and flax ; but 

 the English farmers were not incited to any imme- 

 diate exertion by the hope of this reward, and for 

 the space of fifteen years no candidate appeared to 

 claim a premium. Flax is considered to be a great 

 exhauster of the soil, and most probably the Eng- 

 lish agriculturists found that they could employ their 

 land more advantageously than in raising this plant. 

 It is, however, at present partially cultivated in, 

 several counties. In Lincolnshire, Somersetshire, 

 and Yorkshire more especially, a considerable quan- 

 tity is raised ; it likewise continues to be grown in 

 Scotland ; and Ireland produces nearly all the flax 

 it requires for its extensive linen manufactories, 

 occasionally receiving small quantities from Holland. 

 As the Irish cultivators do not preserve sufficient 

 * Macpherson's Annals of Commerce. 



B3 



