426 [Assembly 



The progress of science, and the skill and enterprise displayed 

 by many of the agriculturists of England and Ireland, have, how- 

 ever, now placed the matter upon a perfectly different footing, 

 and upon one which I venture to submit should induce the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, in the most strenuous manner, to urge upon 

 the farmers of the United Kingdom, the propriety of immediately 

 devoting some portion of their land to the culture of Flax. 



Climate and Soil of England suited to its Growth. — That 

 Flax can be produced in this country is a point upon which I 

 apprehend little doubt now exists ; and it is unnecessary for me, 

 especially before such a body as that which I now have the 

 honor of addressing, to argue such a question. Suffice it, there- 

 fore, upon this point, to say, that in many respects our climate is 

 better adapted for its growth than even Belgium, inasmuch as we 

 are not subject to those severe droughts which, occuring in tlie 

 spring in that country, frequently inflict very serious damage 

 upon the young crop. Flax is grown, to some extent, in almost 

 every part of the United Kingdom — it has been grown with suc- 

 cess upon an Irish bog, and in the fen districts of England — on 

 the summit of the Wicklow mountains, and upon the Beacon-hill 

 of Norfolk, in the midland counties of England and the western 

 skores of Galway and Mayo, upon rich and poor, clayey, gravelly, 

 alluvial, and every variety of soil. 



Importance attached to Growth of Flax by Government. — 

 This suitability of our climate and soil to the production of Flax, 

 and the importance which in earlier times was attached to it, is 

 sufficiently evinced by the numeioL-ous legislative measures which 

 at various times, from the reign of Henry YIII. to that of George 

 III., have been passed in order to promote and encourage its 

 growth. The " Transactions of the Board of Agriculture" for 

 1742, contain a letter from Robert Somerville, Esq., of the East 

 Lothian, in which the writer regrets, notwithstanding these en- 

 couragements and the bounties offered by the liberality of the 

 Government, that the cultivation of Flax should then have been 

 so extremely limited, and the management in every stage, both 

 of its culture and manufacture, so very detective. 



