672" [Assembly 



A note from W. J. Cogswell, of Jamaica, declining invitation to 

 meet the Farmers' Club in its recent excursion to Long Island, was 

 read. 



Mr. Meigs read the following extracts made by him from the Lon- 

 don Morning Chronicle: 



Flax in Ireland. 



1710, 1,688,574 yards. 



1750, 11,200,771 do 



1775, 21,502,000 do 



1800, 35,676,901 do 



1820, 43,613,218 do 



1825, 55,113,265 do 



1835, 60,916,592 do 



Imports into the United Kingdom in 1845, from foreign countries: 



Fibre. — 70,424 tons, worth twenty millions of dollars. 



Flax seed. — Nearly five millions of bushels, worth about twenty- 

 seven millions of dollars. 



Oil cake. — 85,890 tons, worth over three millions of doJlars. 



Total. — Thirty millions of dollars, drained out of Great Britain, 

 for the produce of a crop which could be had at home. 



Previous to 1825, linen was made from hand spun yarn. In 1839 

 there were in operation forty flax spinning mills, using steam power 

 of about 2000 horses. 



In the United Kingdom there were (in 1845,) 414 linen factories, 

 of 12,000 horse power; 48,000 persons, and capital sixty millions 

 of dollars; three mills consume annually 110,000 tons of flax. 



Boston JVavy Yard. 



The Navy Yard at Boston, occupies about 9| acres of ground, en- 

 closed with a granite wall. 



The principal buildings are a rope walk, 1,360 feet long, with a 

 tar-house and store-house for hemp adjoining. About 55 tons of 

 hemp are used here monthly; 50 men on an average daily employ- 

 ed The hemp house will contain 1,000 tons of hemp; 110 barrels 

 of tar are used monthly. At this rope walk all the rigging for the 



