REASONS 



CULTIVATION OF FLAX. 



Agriculture and home commerce are the pillars of national 

 prosperity : for when success attends the plough, the labourer 

 and the artisan are employed, provisiong and wares meet a 

 ready sale, and the tradesman flourishes. 



In proportion as Agriculture is depressed, all the dependent 

 branches of trade suffer, for if the country spends nothing, the 

 towns must needs languish. When the small rivulets are dried 

 up, the main stream is lessened ; and if the people consume 

 but little of farm -produce, the springs of home commerce are 

 consequently exhausted. 



The consumption from the farm and the factory is regu- 

 lated according to the rate at which the people are employed 

 and paid ; for they never cease to consume except when they 

 cease to receive wages adequate to their wants. When the 

 poor have the means, they are always the best customers at 

 market, for they carry ready money in their hands, and talce 

 off the inferior meats, coarsest wares, and in truth most of those 

 things which the rich will not have at any price. 



The great drawback on agriculture and trade, at th»^ pre- 

 sent crisis, is a want of sale for ordinary meat, malt, and the 

 inferior articles of manufacture, the consumption of which 

 mainly depends on the working classes. 



We need be under no apprehension of a market for our 

 prime articles, when there is a brisk sale for the worst ; but 

 even the value of the superior is always enhanced as the prices 

 of the inferior kinds advance. 



