488 [ASSEMFLT 



600,000 to be divided as wages among those employed in the manu- 

 facture, estimated at 172,000 persons, earning j£18, or $S6 per an- 

 num each. The consumption of foreign linens in Great Britain is 

 quite inconsiderable, not exceeding jG20,000. 



Judge Van Wyck. — I fear the culture of flax will not repay the 

 farmer, if it is conducted as it has hitherto been done, for fifty years 

 past. Too much labor, too much cost in getting it prepared and 

 sent to a proper market. The price of seven and a half cents to 

 twelve and a half cents a pound will not remunerate the producer. 

 The most which can ordinarily be raised- — if for the lint only, is 

 about four hundred pounds the acre — if raised for seed only, two 

 hundred pounds. The capital employed, consisting of land, in our 

 part of the country worth one hundred dollars per acre. Animals^ 

 and tools $50; labor and dressing, and getting to market — altogether 

 say $200. While the price averaging but ten cents a pound, 

 will not remunerate the farmer. Perhaps on rich western lands it would 

 pay, but not in our quarter, where grazing and raising of bread 

 stuffs is far more profitable. Grain crops cost us nothing like the la^ 

 bor and expense of flax. Flax must be raised, puffed, housed, 

 rotted, dressed and go to market with much delay and expense. 

 You cannot persuade our farmers to raise flax, unless you show it to 

 be profitable; and they know what is for their best intfrest to pro- 

 duce. England had to abandon the culture of flax in favor of grain 

 and cattle, although the government gave bounties by way of en- 

 couraging the flax culture. It will never do in the Northern States, 

 unless some revolution is effected in the culture, dressing, &c. If by 

 machinery the difficulties can be overcome, then it may answer. 



Dr. Underbill. — It is not intended to recommend the culture of 

 flax after the old method, but on rich soil. When cut in the flow- 

 er by a cradle, instead of hand pulling, &c., this is an entirely new 

 plan. We speak of the culture for the United States; and in the 

 rich soils of the country west, Arkansas, &c. The crop of flax does 

 not when cut in the flower, impoverish land half as much as when 

 allowed to go to seed, and gives a double crop of the flax, and so 

 much finer is the fibre, that it is worth fourteen or sixteen cents a 

 pound. The machinery of Mr. Billings' can dress the flax for three 

 cents a pound! and by cradling, rotting and dressing in the manner 

 Billings does it, almost 20 per cent more of flax is made than wa» 

 made by the clumsy old method. And the quality of the fibre far 

 superior; silky and beautiful. Hemp is peculiarly fitted for the rich 



