236 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



mention the continental bounties on the cultivation of 

 sugar-beet, which have quite precluded the possibility 

 of growing sugar-beet and manufacturing it into 

 sugar in this country, and prevented a revival of the 

 prosperity of agriculture. I have the greatest con- 

 fidence that this industry can be profitably carried 

 on in England if fair play were accorded to us. I 

 have given the past five years to its promotion, and 

 feel sure that the 14,000,000/. sterling which we pay 

 annually to the Continent for sugar could be saved 

 for our colonies and our own country. I have been 

 busy during the past two years, and have given great 

 attention to the promotion of another great agricul- 

 tural industry, which has no bounty to combat, and 

 which I am certain can, and will be, most profitably 

 carried into effect immediately, viz. the growth of 

 flax and hemp. Some twenty-five years ago I grew 

 some acres of flax most successfully on my farm, 

 with some of my neighbours, but when grown 

 we had no market for it nearer than Belfast, which 

 was five hundred miles distant, so we were obliged 

 to relinquish the cultivation. But now a company 

 is formed called the ' English Fibres Industries, 

 Limited,' which proposes to erect works for treating 

 both fibres, and bringing them into perfection in 

 various parts of the kingdom. This year, 1897, 

 there are 3,000 acres being grown in the Eastern 

 Counties, with the greatest success, and as we pay 

 the foreigner, first and last, nearly 18,000,000/. 

 sterling per annum for these articles, it appears that 

 there is a prospect of the future prosperity of the 



