No. 144.] 335 



ACRES OF FLAX. 



Year. Acres. Year. Acres. 



1812, 73,000 1823, 95,000 



1813, 52,000 1824, 112,000 



1814, 62,000 1825, 86,000 



1815, 91,000 1847, ^. . , 58,000 



1816, ... 93,000 1848, * .. 53,000 



1817, 57,000 1849, 60,000 



1818, 83,000 1850,..,.. 91,000 



1819,. 77,000 1851, 138,000 



1820, 91,000 1852, 139,000 



1821, 80,000 1853, 175,000 



1822, , 86,000 



Between 1826 and 1846 there was a gradual lalling off. The 

 Flax Society have increased the crop three fold. Its talented 

 and active secretary, Mr. McAdams, is Avorthy of all praise. The 

 society receives <£1,000 sterling ($5,000) from government for its 

 support. 



In 1843 I commenced the collection, fjom the Board of Trade 

 OflB.ce, of the annual imports of flax, oil cake and flax seed from 

 Russia, Belgium, &c. I found that Great Britain paid annually 

 for these seven millions of pounds sterling ($35,000,000), and that 

 Russia received out of that sum nearly $12,000,000. 



J. H. DICKSON. 



February, 1854. Lord Harris has given $1,000 for premiums 

 on best native farming in Trinidad. 



Royle. — Exposure favors the formation of woody fibres, but as 

 we know in timber trees, this lessens their flexibility. Therefore, 

 when hemp and flax are cultivated for their fibres^ they are (in 

 Europe,) sown thick, and closer and closer as the fibre is required 

 to be of finer quality. In India, where flax is sown for its seed^ 

 it is s^wn in lines, as an edging to other crops, so that exposure 

 is equally secured, a good crop of oily seed produced, but the 

 fibre of such flax is short and brittle, and unsuited for the general 

 purposes of flax. 



