284 



Sir, 



The attempt to set up the Gold of Pleasure in opposition to flax 

 and linseed, was to me at first a subject of considerable amusement. It 

 came before me as follows : — About two years ago I received a printed 

 circular headed " Gold of Pleasure," giving a long and glowing de- 

 scription of its virtues, accompanied by a polite letter offering to supply 

 me with a sample of the seed, and of the oil and cake extracted there- 

 from. I readily accepted the offer, and by return of post a parcel ar- 

 rived containing a small vial of oil, a piece of cake as hard as a stone, 

 and, to my astonishment, a little of the very seed of a plant that I had 

 been at much expense to eradicate from my flax, as a troublesome and 

 noxious weed. My correspondent informed me that he had disposed 

 of some of the seed at five shillings per lb., but he observed, " If you 

 or any other person are willing to become agents for the sale of it, the 

 price would be four shillings per lb. for nine or ten coombs, with a li- 

 beral allowance for agency." 



Similar samples were forwarded and proposals made to the Editor of 

 the Norwich Mercury, for at that gentleman's office I was shown the 

 seed, cake, and oil, with the accompanying correspondence. 



I immediately returned samples of the seed with some of the straw 

 and bolls taken from amongst my flax, with an account of my own ex- 

 perience and opinion of its utter worthlessness in comparison to flax 

 and linseed. 



I received a very gentlemanly answer, acknowledging the error into 

 which the writer had been led, through the ignorant representation of 

 a friend. I confess that I perused the circular in question with unusual 

 care, well weighing the importance of a crop which, " ere long, was to 

 take that place in the agricultural world to which, by its high merit, it 

 was so justly entitled." I then, with pen and ink, worked out the follow- 

 ing question, founded on the assertion that " the produce will mostly 

 be very abundant, as high as 35 to 45 bushels per acre." — If an acre of 

 land will produce 40 bushels of seed, weighing " 56 lbs. per bushel," 

 what will be the value of the crop at five shillings per lb. ? Answer, 

 560/. sterling. I involuntarily grasped the quill in my hand, fancying 

 I at last had caught "the Goose that laid the Golden Eggs." So un- 

 willing was I to let her go, that I consulted living Botanists, and the 

 writings of those long since dead, as to the intrinsic value of the seed 

 in question. From every authority I received the anti-pleasurable assu- 

 rance that it really was the pen, and not the goose, I held so firmly. 

 The limits of a letter will not admit of numerous quotations ; let one 

 suffice from Smith's English Flora, Vol. III. p. 164, under the head 

 Camelina sativa, or Gold of Pleasure : — " The ridiculous pompous 

 English name seems a satire on the article of which it is composed, as 

 yielding nothing but disappointment.'' 



