No. 149.] 445 



that it was from 4d. to 6d. per lb.; while the foreign cotton 

 ranged from 8d. upwards, according to quality. 



Mr. Fisher Hobbs informed the council of the result attending 

 flax culture in the eastern counties, where the growers had been 

 unable to obtain a market for their produce. The farmer's capi- 

 tal was, he thought, too nearly exhausted at the present moment 

 to render it prudent for him to embark in any new line of culti- 

 vation, without being first well assured after having overcome all 

 the practical difficulties of a new crop, and its preparation for 

 sale, he should find a ready market for its disposal. He hoped, 

 as in the case of wool, that there would be a probability of farm- 

 ers having a flax market, so that the article might be taken off 

 their hands at so much per acre or ton, without loss or risk of 

 the capital employed. Seeing among them that day a member 

 of the distinguished family of the Leeds flax-spinners, he would 

 appeal to him on this point, in the hope that he would be able, 

 from experience of the whole question, to favor them with an 

 opinion on the subject. 



Colonel Challoner then ascertained, by inquiries addressed to 

 M. Claussen, that flax injured by the farmer for sale and use un- 

 der the old system, was available and equivalent to uninjured 

 flax for the purposes of M. Claussen, who would give as good a 

 price for it. 



Mr. Marshall, M. P., replied that his brothers were the flax- 

 spinners ; he was only to a limited extent, a grower of flax for 

 their own use. They were, he believed, in the habit of paying 

 j£7 or <£8 per acre for the use of land for the flax crop, they 

 bearing all the expenses of cultivation, while the farmer had the 

 benefit of the land for the remainder of the year. There was at 

 the present time, he believed, a considerable market for flax. In 

 Belgium the " fabricant" relieved the grower of all trouble and 

 responsibility attending his crop, visiting his farm in person and 

 taking it at a valuation. On the present plan, the object was to 

 obtain long fibre ; cloth formed of which in the warp with cot- 

 ton, and more durable in wear, being employed for sheeting and 

 shirting. On the new principle, the flax, it appeared, was bro- 

 ken up into short fibre ; and Instead of steeping in hot or cold 



