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4 



tributed to render this valuable and necessary plant not so 

 profitable as might, from the public support bestowed upon it, 

 have been expected. 



The uncommon attention paid to the cultivation of flax in 

 this country, especially in the districts mentioned in the be- 

 ginning of this article, will appear from the annexed table, 

 with which I was favoured by Mr. Arbuthnot, Secretary to 

 the Trustees for Manufactures and Fisheries in Scotland. 

 When one considers, besides the number of yards of linen 

 cloth mentioned in the table, what quantity the inhabitants of 

 the country must use for their own wear, which never comes 

 to market, and is not stamped, and also the vast quantity of 

 linen yarn that is sold to manufacturers of chequed goods in 

 Glasgow and elsewhere, the returns from the culture of flax 

 is a matter of great moment to this part of the kingdom, and 

 will, in some measure, justify me in dwelling so long on this 

 subject. 



It must be highly gratifying to every person who wishes 

 well to his country to observe the progressive industry and 

 the increasing wealth of a single county, in onlij one article, so 

 well authenticated. What must be the growing prosperity 

 of the county of Perth, if equally successful in a variety of 

 other articles I How rapid the progress of the property of 

 Great Britain, supposing all its counties to keep pace with 

 that of Perth ! 



So great is the profit arising from flax, that one gentleman, 

 who is in the foremost rank of improvers in the eastern part 

 of the county, expressed an opinion that the value of the flax 

 manufactured into home linen, stamped linen, and sold in yarn 

 in the shire of Perth, was equal to the whole land-rent.* As 

 he wished to have data, either to correct or support his opinion, 

 it is to me an object of regret that all the necessary data are 

 beyond my power to condescend upon, with any degree of 

 precision. We know what is stamped ; and may we not com- 

 pute that the home consumption, which is not stamped, and 

 the yarn sold out of the county and applied to various pur- 

 poses that never comes into any of these accounts, is at least 



* In the parish of Alyth the whole land-rent does not amount to 4000/., but 

 the value of linen stamped there is 10,000/, at least. 



