F 



213 



must fail to remunerate, because the process of hand-scutching 

 could not be performed for less than Ss. per stone. 



I shall not, on the present occasion, attempt to combat Mr. 

 Gower's peculiar notion, that flax pulled in a green state will 

 weigh one-third more than if allowed to arrive at maturity ; but 

 I cannot so briefly glide over the " very striking instance" he 

 adduced of the exhausting effect of the crop ; because the flax 

 to which he refers was no other than that grown by the Hon. 

 W. R. Rous, at Worstead ; and which, according to the detailed 

 account published by that gentleman, realized a clear profit of 

 y/. per acre, after deducting rent, tithe, rates, tillage, manure, 

 seed, steeping, &c., and also scutching at 3s. per stone. The 

 crop was abundant, averaging from three to four feet in length. 

 Some of the stalks, that exceeded four feet four inches, I had 

 the pleasure of exhibiting at the Council of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, and at the Derby meeting. 



Under these circumstances it is only reasonable to suppose 

 that the soil was, in some measure, exhausted. But suppo- 

 sition is not proof, and therefore Mr. Gower ought not to have 

 asserted that " So exhausting was it to the land, that fourteen 

 loads of manure per acre were put on the land where it was 

 pulled off"," till the effect had been absolutely tested by a sue- 

 cccding crop. The result would, probably, have been in favour 

 of the produce after flax, rather than after mangold grown 

 in the same field. Undoubtedly fourteen loads of manure 

 were applied to the land, but for a purpose far different 

 from that adduced by Mr. Gower. The truth is simple, 

 and easily explained. Mr. Rous was desirous of sowing 

 turnip seed immediately after the flax, and of securing two 

 crops in the same year. Manure was therefore resorted 

 tOj and turnips obtained of so excellent a quality, that samples 

 were exhibited at the North Walsham Root Show, and the 

 circumstance of their having been grown after flax in the same 

 year published in the Report of the Farmers' Club, by the 

 Secretary, Mr. Gower himself. The land in question was sown 

 with linseed on the 2nd of April, 1843, and the account of this 

 interesting experiment first conveyed to the public through the 

 ' Norwich Mercury,' of which the following is a copy : — 



