4b 



as our soil and climate will produce in perl'ection, as are in de- 

 mand, either for exportation or domestic manufacture. Under 

 this head I shall call your attention a few moments to flax, hemp 

 and wool. 



With the cultivation of Flax, almost every farmer is in 

 some measure acquainted. But since cotton goods have be- 

 come so cheap, it has been generally abandoned as unprofita* 

 ble. Great improvements in machinery for dressing and spin- 

 ning it having been recently anounced, it is not improbable 

 that it will again be considered one of the most profitable of 

 crops. Linen must ever be preferred to cotton for many uses, 

 provided it can be afforded nearly as cheap. Expertness in 

 manufacturing flax into useful and ornamental articles of dress 

 was formerly, and I trust will again, be considered one of the 

 most honourable of female accomplishments. It certainly de- 

 serves to hold a superior rank to embroidering, tambouring and 

 painting. But to enable our ingenious and industrious ladies to 

 rival foreigners in the manufacture of laces and fine linen, they 

 must be furnished with the raw material in perfection. Our 

 patriotic farmers therefore would do well to acquaint them- 

 selves with the most improved methods of cultivating and man- 

 aging flax.* To the Irish, who have carried the manufacture 

 of linen to so great a degree of perfection, we may confidently 

 look for instruction on this subject. And as knowledge acquir- 

 ed from books, and other sources of like nature, is not alone 

 sufficient to ensure success, let such methods as have been 

 found most successful elsewhere, be subjected to experiments 

 on a small scale here. Nor let failure in the first instance dis- 

 courage farther efforts. It is the price that must generally be 

 paid for all valuable improvements in any art. 



Hemp is another article in great demand,- for large quantities 

 of it are imported, which might be cultivated here as success- 

 fully as in any country on the globe. Why then should we 

 yield to foreign agriculturalists all the profits of supplying Amer- 



* The thread for which Mrs. Crowninshield, of Danvcrs, received a 

 premium from the Massachusetts society, a fev years since, was made of 

 flax sowed thick, so as to prevent it from growing rank, was pulled imme- 

 diately after the blooms had fallen, and boiled instead of being rotted- 

 Water rotting, however, would answei' the same purpose. 



