10 



as our common muslin, very strong, and of an even texture," 

 which proves that their manufactures must have arrived at 

 a great degree of excellence. Pliny describes the dilfferent 

 qualities of flax respectively produced by each country, with a 

 particularity which argues that the manufacture of linen was 

 already become an important branch of commerce to many 

 nations. It appears that the produce of flax was first intro- 

 duced into England by the Romans. But we may infer that 

 the plant itself was not cultivated at the time of the Norman 

 Conquest. Compared to the great demand for flax, its cul- 

 tivation both in England and Ireland is almost nominal. The 

 flax plant is scarcely affected by diffierence of soil and climate. 

 It flourishes in the cold as well as in the temperate regions of 

 Europe ; in North and South America, in Africa and in Asia. 

 In some parts of Russia the flax-grounds are as extensive as 

 the corn lands; but in Belgium flax is cultivated with the 

 greatest skill and success. The value of a flax crop is there- 

 fore no new discovery ; the novelty consists in the attempt to 

 introduce an extended and an improved cultivation of so 

 valuable an article into our system of husbandry. 



Considering the superiority of British agriculture, par- 

 ticularly that of Norfolk, it is astonishing that the real pro- 

 perties of flax should have been so little understood and so 

 long neglected — in Norfolk too, where even the refuse of 

 the seed, in the shape of oil-cake, has been for so many years 

 more highly appreciated than any other food to fatten cattle. 

 It is also wonderful that history affords no information of the 

 cultivation of flax exclusively for the sake of the seed to fatten 

 cattle, until the attempt was made by myself at Trimingham. 

 So little was linseed-cake appreciated about 80 years ago, that 

 it was used in Holland merely as fuel : and it is only within 

 the last year or two that the attention of the Irish has been 

 directed to the importance of saving the seed ; for they were 

 always in the habit of throwing it with the flax into the steep- 

 ing holes, not thinking the bolls, in which the seed is con- 

 tained, worth pulling off". 



Flax may certainly be termed a double crop ; for while the 

 straw of wheat is reduced to manure, the straw of flax is 

 advanced to the most useful purposes and made into the most 



