No. 149.1 447 



growing flax, the only difficulty was to get a market for it. In 

 Sussex it could not be turned into money. If M. Claussen could 

 make it marketable for them, he would find no want of growers. 

 It was, he thought, of little purpose to tell farmers of the quanti- 

 ty grown and the price it ought to fetch. 



M. Claussen replied that it was both simple and easy to pre- 

 pare the flax for the spindle, and he would undertake to furnish 

 persons properly instructed who would direct the farmers how 

 to proceed. There was one house at Bradford, that of Messrs. Quit- 

 zow, Schlesinger & Co., flax-spinners, dyers and merchants, whose 

 only fear was that enough flax would not be grown for their use ; 

 and they were, he believed, ready to give X4 per ton for flax of 

 fair quality. 



Professor Way observed that the present system of preparing 

 flax only applied to existing markets. M. Claussen's method, as 

 he understood it, had the merit of opening new and extensive 

 markets for this article ; and there was one important point in 

 the new plan — that there would be no distinction of flax into fine 

 or coarse qualities. The farmer, too, under the new system, 

 would not be obliged to pull his flax, as under the system hith- 

 erto in use, before it was ripe, in order to procure a higher price 

 for his fibre ; but, on the contrary, it will not be necessary to 

 pull it until the seed and stalk were fully ripe. The farmer 

 would thus obtain a larger proportion of fibre in proportion to 

 the bulk, and a heavier crop of seed. He understood the quality 

 of fibre in the new process not to be so essentially of importance 

 as under the former plan, and that farmers may break the flax to 

 reduce its bulk. The new material would be intermediate be- 

 tween linen and cotton ; less valuable than the one, but more 

 valuable than the other. 



Mr. Shelley then rose to propose a vote of thanks to M. Claus- 

 sen for the favor he had done them in his attendance on the oc- 

 casion, and the information he had laid before the council. He 

 heartily wished him success in the practical development of his 

 new discovery, and hoped that the farmers would reap the benefit 

 of it, and obtain a fair remuneration for their produce. 



