214 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. ril. 



any other purpose. Such restrictions, therefore, 

 are equally unnecessary and improper. 



6/, The liberty of raising flax to any extent 

 the farmer himself shall judge proper, must, in 

 many cases, be highly beneficial, as it furnishes 

 him with the most effectual mean of securing a 

 sufficient supply of hands, at all times, and up- 

 on reasonable terms, for carrying on the busi- 

 ness of the farm. During the summer and har- 

 vest months, when his potatoes and turnips are 

 to he dressed, his hay to be win, and his corns 

 to be cut down, he has occasion for a number 

 of extra hands to assist. These he often finds 

 it difficult to procure. Most of the young men 

 are either engaged by the year, or confined to 

 some stated employment ; his chief dependence, 

 therefore, is on the females. In order to secure 

 them, he has it in his power to oblige them, by 

 sowing for each a few lippies of lint-seed, for 

 which they pay, in labour, at the rate of 2 s. or 

 2 s. 6 d. the lippie, according to the quality of 

 the ground. And as they consider sowing lint 

 for them as a favour, they not only work for 

 their lint ground, but are ready to work to him 

 for wages at any time when their assistance may 

 be necessary. In this way he can always secure 

 a certain number of hands, when their services 

 are wanted, while, at the same time, he fur- 

 nishes them with the means of being usefully 

 employed at home, when he has riot occasion 

 for their labour. 



jtb, Though flax, it must be owned, does 

 not produce fodder and manure equal to other 

 crops, yet even in this respect it is not totally 

 deficient. The chafT and weak seed of an acre 



