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their flax, because the supply, although importerl to the 

 amount of nearly six millions a year, is scarcely equal to the 

 demand. In truth, the flax-spinners of England require a 

 more abundant supply, from our own resources, and at a 

 cheaper rate, in order that the price of linen may approxi- 

 mate to that of calico. This, I am persuaded, can be ob- 

 tained, and would be the means of finding employment not 

 only for the redundant rural, but also for the manufacturing, 

 population. The limits of a letter will not admit of lengthened 

 arguments to prove the soundness of my theory. But it must 

 be evident to every inquirer- 1st, that such an immense quan- 

 tity of flax as we now import is subjected to many heavy 

 charges, and that many thousands of foreign hands were em- 

 ployed to prepare it for exportation. 2dly, That if we grew an 

 equal quantity in this country, it would require just as many 

 thousands of our own hands to reduce it to a similar state. 

 These would have to be mainly drawn from manufacturing 

 towns, because the rural labourers would be wanted to pre- 

 pare the seed, form it into compound to fatten cattle, and per- 

 form the labours consequent upon the new system of grazing. 

 An apprehension has been expressed, that my object in intro- 

 ducing the cultivation of flax was to supersede that of corn — to 

 raise the price of provisions and lessen the means of subsist- 

 ence ; hence the loudly expressed alarm, " We cannot eat 

 flax." It certainly might appear to the superficial reasoner 

 that the appropriation of land to the growth of flax would ne- 

 cessarily diminish the supply of wheat. But a careful inves- 

 tigation of the subject will soon disperse this fear. It will be 

 discovered, that the best flax is grown upon wheat stubble — 

 that upon strong soils, in particular, flax is an excellent crop 

 to precede wheat — that as flax will flourish on newly broken-up 

 soils it will evidently be the means of bringing into regular 

 cultivation large tracts of barren land — that it will require 

 less than two acres to t very hundred now in cultivation, to 

 supply the present demand for flax, independent of foreign aid, 

 from which infinitely more tons of linseed would be obtained to 

 fatten cattle than were ever imported of oil-cake in one year — 

 that, throughout my pamphlets, previous letters, and present 

 series, published during the past four years, I advocate con- 



