90 



appear to be utter strangers to its real value, or the profits 

 that would speedily arise from a spirited and judicious mode 

 of management, were it but adopted. Almost any method 

 of cultivation different from the present, would in point of 

 private advantage be infinitely preferable. But were these 

 lands appropriated to hemp and flax, they would prove highly 

 advantageous both to the landholders and the public at 

 large. 



It is well known, that soils naturally rich and fertile will 

 produce hemp and flax in abundance ; and as these are ame- 

 liorating crops, they will not, if cut without seeding, impoverish 

 the land. And as the best crops of flax are raised from foreign 

 seed (which is easily procured cheaper than we can raise it) 

 there is the less occasion for suffering it to seed in this country. 



The vast quantities of hemp and flax which have been raised 

 on lands of the same kind in the Lincolnshire marshes, and the 

 fens of the Isle of Ely and Huntingdonshire, are a full proof 

 of the truth of my assertion ; and a convincing argument of 

 the superior wisdom of the farmers in those places. This will 

 appear in a stronger light, when we consider that the other 

 commodities raised on such land sell at higher prices than in 

 this county. 



Many hundreds of acres in the above-mentioned places, which 

 for pasturage or grazing were not worth more than twenty or 

 twenty-five shillings per acre, have been readily let at four 

 pounds the first year, three pounds the second, and forty shil- 

 lings the third. The reason of this supposed declining value 

 of the land, in proportion to the number of years sown with 

 flax, is, that it is usual with them to seed it for the purpose 

 of making oil, that being the principal cause of the land being 

 thereby impoverished. 



It will not appear strange, that such rents should be given 

 for lands which produce from fifty to seventy stone per acre, 

 which, when dressed, sell on the average from seven to nine 

 shillings a stone, or twenty-four pounds value per acre. 



But the profitable growth of hemp and flax is not confined 

 to rich soils. Experience hath evinced, that they will grow 

 well on poor sandy land, if a little expense be bestowed in 

 manuring it. 



