299 



by the following extract from the recent Report of the Irish Flax Im- 

 provement Association : — 



" A prejudice had formerly prevailed against saving the seed, from 

 an idea that it would injure the quality of the fibre. But almost every- 

 where through the country, this season, a large portion has been saved, 

 and the flax has not been at all deteriorated. From fully one-sixth of 

 the present crop the seed has been saved, and either used for feeding or 

 sold for the oil-mills ; the total value of which cannot be estimated at 

 less than from 60 to 80,000 pounds. It is believed that in a few years 

 all the seed of the Irish flax crop will be saved, and an addition thus 

 made to the resources of the country amounting to nearly half a million 

 per annum." 



The produce of seed in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, 

 exceeds any accounts extant, as the 32 bushels per acre, grown by Mr. 

 Negus of Crimplesham, near Downham, Norfolk ; with the crops of 

 the Rev. T. C. Blair "Warren, of Horkesley Hall ; Mr. Piearson, of 

 Framlingham; Mr. Bear, of Paston, &c., varying from 20 to 29 

 bushels per acre, most clearly demonstrate. In closing this part of 

 their Report, your Committee refer to the above facts as indisputable 

 evidences that both seed and fibre can be profitably secured ; and that 

 the contrary opinion, at least under the improved system, is nothing 

 more than idle prejudice. 



TJie exhausting effects of the Crop, 



Or rather, your Committee would say, the restorative ; for notwith- 

 standing the outcry of its deteriorating effects upon land, the multitu- 

 dinous instances to the contrary prove, that by a judicious introduction 

 into the rotation of crops, flax improves the soil ; and that tales from 

 ancient writers upon this point tend only to deceive, as the following 

 circumstance clearly corroborates : — Several members of the North 

 Walsham Farmers' Club entered into a sweepstakes to produce, on the 

 19th of December, the greatest weight of turnips from a given quantity 

 of land, without regard to soil or rotation. Mr. Playford, of North- 

 repps, selected a field that had produced an abundant crop of flax and 

 linseed the previous year, and exceeded the highest weight of his com- 

 petitors by 4 tons 15 cwt. Again, Mr. Atkinson, of Walcot, sold an 

 acre of flax and seed for 13/. 7*. Qd. last year, and in the present had 

 64 bushels of barley from the same acre, without the application of 

 manure. But the soundness of the above remarks will be seen by a 

 comparison between flax and corn ; the straw only of the latter 

 being returned to the soil ; while the seed of the former, being con- 

 sumed by cattle, is diffused over the whole farm in the shape of manure. 



