No. 149.] 419 



^1,600,000. The sum total ot all these imports exceeded 

 X8,000,000, or forty millions of dollars. England exported in 

 1832, 49,500,000 yards of linen j in 1849, 106,000,000 of yards, 

 having more than doubled. There are now in Manchester eighty 

 persons engaged in the manufacture and sale of linen yarns. 

 They sell 100,000 bundles of tow and linen yarns every month 

 in Manchester, worth XSSjOOO, and the trade is increasing. 



David Gavin Scott, of Paterson, New-Jersey. — I have been for 

 some years practically concerned in the manufacture and dyeing 

 of flax, both in Scotland and this country. It is a subject deeply 

 interesting. This Institute will use the power given to it so as to 

 concentrate here as in a grand focus, every light, every ray of 

 useful knowledge, and hence radiate it to the most distant re- 

 gions, even to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 



Flax was early introduced into England, but increased but 

 slowly. It went to Ireland in about 1750. Alarmed at the pro- 

 gress of the Irish in the woolen trade, the British Parliament ad- 

 dressed a petition to William III. that he would stop that, and 

 let the Irish take to raising and working flax. William promised 

 that he would do all that he could. England ordered that 

 all the Irish woolens should be exported to England only. 

 The linen iDUsiness of Ireland grew and prospered in the north 

 of Ireland — not so in the south — and the cry of famine which 

 came across the waters to us, recently, was all from the south, 

 where flax and linen did not prosper. England gave premiums 

 and bounties on the linens of Ireland. Protecting this industry 

 on a lofty scale it thrived ; but more in Scotland than in Ireland, 

 for since 1815 the city of Dundee has become in linen almost 

 equal to Manchester in cotton. In 1850 Dundee spun and wove 

 forty-five thousand tons of flax This amount had the efiect of 

 cheapening linen goods. Scotland is using power looms. Last 

 year two hundred million pounds weight of flax were used in 

 Great Britain. The English farmers are aroused. Last year they 

 produced fifty millions of pounds weight, or what was equal to 

 about one-third of the cotton import. Russia has given to Eng- 

 land about sixty per cent, of the flax she imports. In New-York 

 flax is now worth eight cents a pound. Cloth of pure flax is 

 worth fifty cents a yard. 



