No. 151.] 489 



lands of the west. I exhibit to the club a specimen of the Agate 

 hemp from Yucatan. Dr. Ferine brought this article into notice. 



This hemp is the strongest in the world for ship's cables. But 

 common hemp is becoming very interesting as a crop in our country. 

 Forty-five millions of pounds were raised here in 1844. A pamph- 

 let issued by a distinguished citizen of Kentucky greatly contributed 

 to this most valuable result. Hemp is now cradled when green. 



Judge Van Wyck — It is admitted in Europe that flax although 

 pulled when in the flort^er, yet exhausts land more than grain cropsj 

 but when it goes to seed it becomes a scourge to the soil. Not so 

 with hemp, of which twenty crops in succession can be produced on 

 the same land, with but little manuring, and the last crop be perhaps 

 a better one than the first. 



Chairman. — One cause of the neglected culture of flax is cotton 

 so agreeable and useful for apparel for the greater part of the year. 

 As to hemp, there is no doubt as to our capacity to raise it. I do 

 not think that hemp is so great an exhauster of the soil as flax. 



It is a difficult thing to fix dyes in linen; the colors, notwith-' 

 standing the use of the known mordants, are apt to wash out of 

 linen. 



Mr. Wakeman. — Linen may be made a substitute for cotton to a 

 certain extent. We now import linen to as great an amount, or 

 rather more than we did forty years ago, but not so much in propor-' 

 tion to population. We can raise, say 448 pounds of flax per acre, 

 Ireland raises upwards of 500. If ten cents a pound be the price, it 

 is worth more than cotton raised upon an acre. Every thing in our 

 country has been against linen. The duties began at 5 per cent on 

 sheetings, &c., then went up to 12^. In 1812, they went up to 37^ 

 per cent. A great many manufactories of flax were commenced, 

 and were operating extensively. The double duty and the war caus- 

 ed that. After the war the duty was 15 per cent, while upon cotton 

 it was from 80 to 100 per cent. On woolens it was 2b per cent. 

 In 1828, linen was 15 per cent; hats, boots, &c., were at 30 per 

 cent. 



Our people must have proper inducement to go into the linen bu^ 

 siness, or they will never do it. 



