188 



problem will be solved, whether the culture of flax can be 

 sufficiently followed up to be an extensive source of employ- 

 ment for our labourers. 



" I am, dear Sir, your obedient servant, 



" W. Rous. 



"P.S. — Where the flax has been grown for seed, generally 

 speaking, the fibre has not paid for the labour and cost. 

 Indeed, I have no proof of its having been profitable in a 

 single instance ; but there is some now working which promises 

 well." 



If any one has reason to rejoice at this account, I have : 

 because, notwithstanding its glaring defects, it tends to es- 

 tablish, not only the correctness of all my statements, but also 

 that of my arithmetical calculations. I refer to the second 

 number of my series dated August 2nd, headed " Value of the 

 Flax Crop to the grower;" wherein I showed from English, 

 Irish, and Belgian reports, that the value per acre of good 

 flax would be 24/. including all expenses, which is six shillings 

 less than the amount of Mr. Rous's crop. I also estimated our 

 best growing crops at 40 or 50 stone per acre ; and the flax at 

 8s. to 125., or 155. per stone, exclusive of the seed. The 

 accuracy of this estimate I rested on information derived from 

 personal inquiries in Ireland, from similar opportunities in 

 England, from reading authentic works, and from an extensive 

 correspondence. In pamphlets and public letters I laboured 

 to communicate my experience in easy and comprehensible 

 terms, in order that my most unlearned readers might profit. 

 I say laboured, because the scholar will acknowledge that the 

 difficulty of writing a few sentences of plain common sense is 

 greater than that of many pages of rhetorical flourish. 



I have no wish to lessen Mr. Rous's estimation of the prac- 

 tical men to whom he alludes. But, of his letter, I must 

 observe, that it will not raise their reputation either as men of 

 business, of figures, of facts, or of rhetoric ; — of business, 

 because they never attended either to the steeping, grassing, 

 or scutching of the flax in question ; — of figures, because their 

 account is extremely defective in many items which the prac- 



