42 
48—1846.] 
d 
Societies. 
FLAX IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY. 
Tur annual meeting of this Society was held last 
week at Belfast. The following are extracts from the 
report of the Society, read by the secretary, Mr. 
ac Adam :— 
the various new districts over which the extension of the So- 
"These individuals have been ants to the more 
e Society’s agriculturists, in their several dis- 
tricts, and have thus been fitted for entering upon the manage- 
Ment of other districts in their turn, 
thus chosen were selected, and sent to Belgium, during the 
Flax harvest, where they remained for three weeks, to improve 
themselves both in the green steeping and the Courtrai mode of 
managing the crop. Your committee deemed it expedient, in 
order to give every assistance to those about entering, for the 
first time, on the ‘extensive culture 
west of Ireland, to send the Society’s most i 
turists to the new districts in the beginning of the winter, to 
and to give directions for the preparation of it during the 
winter. At the sowi 
Kilkenny, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, 
Mayo, Leitrim, and Roscommon. Your committee are happy 
to state that the services of the agriculturists have given gene- 
Tal satisfaction, and that they have been most valuable in 
carrying out the views, and furthering the objects of the 
Society. 
* Quantity and Quality of this Year's Flaw Crop.—Your com- 
mittee regret that they cannot present you with a more favour- 
able report of the amountof Flax produced this year in Ireland, 
Partly owing to the unusual quantity of 
the best Flax-growing district iF 
which the plant requires ; and partly from the fears entertained 
on the score of obtaining genuine seed which were entertained, 
Flax sown 
The long-continued 
our committee, therefore, do not 
othersparts of the 
greater, losses are sus 
prospects 
he Flax 
** Fraudsinthe Saleof Fax-seed; and Sowing of Home-saved Seed, 
—In their last annual report, your committee detailed the great 
injury occasioned by the vending of spurious or fraudulently 
made-up seed. Anxious, by the prosecution and conviction of 
and costs, Your com 
of the counsel for the 
from the bench on thi 
value of this case as a precedent, which your committee have 
reason to believe, has already had its effect on the minds of the 
Public, as well as the farmer, as the parties concerned in the 
Sale of seed. As another means of guarding against such 
frauds, your committee recommended the saving of a portion 
of the Flax erop each year on the Courtrai system, and the use 
of the seed thus saved for sowing. This advice having been 
n in several districts the result has been very satis- 
factory, the crops thus grown being equal in all cases and fre- 
rior to 
) ed, of prime quality, and at a low price, is offering. 
this season, and will likely be brought into our markets. 
“Value of. Flaa-seed as Food for Cattle. —Y our committee have 
yearly in their reports to you, 
ctions of iheir 
ae 
600,000 quarters of the former, and 80,000 tons of the Ws 
ing. Your com- 
mittee are, however, happ: report 4 ir strong 
Feconmendatunn 5 py to report that through their strong 
and more of the seed is each year saved, although as yet 
fully two-thirds is wasted. The Burhans of those reei 
the East of England who have introduced, under the able direc- 
tion of Mr. Warnes, an excellent system of house feeding on 
Flax-seed, is deserving of serious attention on the part of Irish 
farmers, and its adoption highly recommended,” 
Mr. W. SHARMAN CRAWFORD, M.P., mov hi i 
this report, He said the extent of the EE 
extensive cultivation of Flax would afford, sould be learned by 
a reference to the various documents interspersed through the 
reports of that Society. He should not take up their time b. 
going through any great number of them, on that oce s 
but would merely call the attention of the meetis ie es 
tistical statement, which appeared in the EE of the So- 
ciety, and which had been considered VOLI 
‘by Sir Robert Kane, to bo used by him, in ms puni eee 
industrial resources of the country. We find recorded the fol 
lowing analysis of the produce and profits of a crop gr y 
"op 
tute acres ; on these three acres he had at least 100 stone; ld 
for 15s. per stone, realizing (no mention is made of the 
quantity or 1e of boles or seed). The process of converting 
this Flax into ¢ ambrie is described thus :— 
tot drains (or perhaps a hundred or two more of the 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
158 spinners, 12 months, or 59 weeks, at about £ s. d. 
3s. 4d. per week Si PRO XE eS ees EET C 
18 weavers, 12 months, at 247. per annum 5 432 0 0 
40 needlewomen, 52 weeks, at 4s. each week — .. 416 0 0 
216 persons employed, amount of wages .. .. 2217.6 8 
Cost of Flax a . E H E oe 75 0 
Total expenses .. on . .. 2292 6 8 
Value of 1050 dozen of pocket-handkerchiefs, at 
24. 10s, per dozen. abi S j 2625 0 0 
Profit . 
a 
figure as high as the most anxious friends of agriculture could 
esire, or as their wishes would lead them to demand—and yet 
the landed interests were in danger of being deprived of a pro- 
portion of their income. were asked to point out how 
these things came to pass, he would have no hesitation in reply- 
ing—because the people are unemployed, and, therefore, unable 
to pay their rents, This country, as was well known to the 
noble Chairman, and every gentleman present, was in a great 
latter), for these we have received 33547. 5s., paying 
5 per cent. on the whole. T'he extent of ground com- 
pletely drained is 588 acres ; we have only 14 or 15 
acres more to drain, for which we have tiles made, and 
Shall complete them this winter, The drains are cut 
when the ground is in lea ; they are almost all in the 
furrows ; the ridges 15 feet wide ; depth of the drains 
2$ feet. For some time we cut the drains in the 
middle of the ridge, that we might have enough of good 
soil to fill in the drains without putting any of the clay, 
but from the many minute veins of sand that intersected 
the elay acting as conductors of the water, we discontinued 
this and cut them at once in the furrow. We are now 
laying down the land much flatter, and in even the 
most tenacious clay soils we seldom see any water 24 
hours after the heaviest falls of rain. We had 5 inches 
of rain on the evening of the 29th July ; the following 
afternoon, on riding over the farm, I only saw water on 
one of the Grass-fields, and that a mere “dub ” $ 
instead of the horse’s feet sinking, or making the land 
sound like a sponge, as it formerly did, all was firm and 
agreeable to ride on, Some seasons we have had very 
large crops of both Swedes and Hybrid, as well as 
yellow Turnips on our out-field land, where Turnips 
never grew before. This is the first season they have 
en indiff the long drought and heat, and then re- 
measure divided into small holdings,—. which 
could not fail to increase the existing distress. Neither his 
lordship nor he (Mr. Orawford) wonld desire to see these small 
holders dispossessed; and if they were not to be dispossessed, 
what course, he would ask, could be adopted in respect to 
them, except to devise for them some means of employment, 
which would enable them to pay their rent better than az 
present. Now, he would point out the cultivation of the Flax 
crop, as ome way to enable them to do so. e a man 
holding a small farm of eight acres, and pursuing a four-course 
rotation ; and suppose that in that rotation he devotes a half- 
acre, annually, to the culture of Flax. Ifhe would, he said, 
follow this plan, one-sixteenth of his holding would be ever: 
year under Flax, He had ne hesitation in saying, that with 
this half-acre he would, without trouble, be enabled to pay his 
ren: for he found, on reference to the various returns in the 
reports of the Society, that the value of the produce of an acre 
of Flax, that is of fine Flax, properly cultivated, amounted to a 
sum of from 307. to 401, With respect to the trouble and ex- 
ense of working it, the small farmer would be repaid by the 
seed, which, he perceived, by some of the documents, amounted. 
sometimes to 107. on the acre. So that if the holder receive 151. 
for the produce in Flax, that sum would cover, in most i 
stances, the rent for the ground, which was an additional in. 
ducement to the landlords to protect and encourage the culti- 
vation of Flax, as much for their own sakes as for the sake of 
nts. It is quite true that it would be a highly improper 
course to devote too great a proportion of a small holding to 
Flax ; because it is well known that it is a crop which will not 
admit of being sown too frequently in the same ground, But, 
on the supposition that in sowing a half acre, a man devotes to 
that purpose but one-sixteenth of his farm, by following a pru- 
dent system of rotation, it would not be repeated in the same 
ground oftener than once in every 16 years. This would be 
allowing him an ample interval for the renovation of the 
ground after the former sowing. The report which had been 
read showed, that that most important process, the saving of. 
the seed, had greatly increased this year. re was an ex- 
ample furnished him by his friend Mr, Andrews, of Comber, of 
the great value of saving the seed of Flax., The hon. gentle- 
man then stated that Mr. Andrews had saved and sold, from a 
crop of Flax which had produced him 281. 16s. 10d., at the rate 
of from 15s. to 16s. the Scotch stone, a quanti 
s. 
n- 
‘ity of seed, which, 
at a price, had give 6d. Here was a source 
Farm Memoranda. $ 
A FARM IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. — You will think m 
tardy in complying with your request, that I would 
give you some account of the tile-drains executed on 
this farm of late years ; but having been much occu- 
pied during the summer and autumn, I have scarcely 
had time to draw up a statement of the different years 
in one concise report for insertion in my farm-book till 
now, and I waited until I had done so, intending to 
send you a copy of it, and some remarks ou the advan- 
tages arising from the work, We commenced the tile- 
drains in 1835, but at that time had a long way to lead 
the tiles, and paid a high price for them. In 1836, the 
Duke of Buccleuch put up a tile-work in this parish, 
and a year after another in the neighbouring parish, to 
supply his tenants with draining-tiles. Ve continued 
to get them from 1836 to 1839 from these tileries, but 
the demand was so great we had always to set in our 
carts for days previous to the drawing of the kilns, and 
thus a very great deal of time was lost both of men and 
horses, as one of the tileries where the best tiles were 
made was seven miles distant, and we seldom could get 
our fields completed in a season from the inadequacy of 
the supply. As this farm is of considerable extent 
(750 acres), and 600 required draining, I saw it would 
be a ruinous concern going on in that way, and at 
length proposed the erection of a tile-kiln for our own 
use, and applied to the Duke of Buccleuch to know if 
e would consent to our having a tile-work of our own, 
and what he would allow per rood. His answer was 
extremely satisfact an ging, so that the 
thing was proceeded with at once. I kept exact ac- 
counts of everything, aud an account of it was after- 
wards drawn up, for which a premium was obtained 
i I inclose you a copy, 
to 1539 the number of tiles we used was 300,792 ; 
32s.; and we were allowed 3d, per rood for cutting the 
drains, excepting a few done at our own cost previous 
to the Duke’s tile works being erected. The total sum 
for those, on which we ay 5 per cent. interest, is 
5671. 7d. From 1840 till this time, we have made 
ani used 1,504,694 draining-tiles, and eut 79,062 roods 
e 
peated heavy rains (20 inches in seven weeks, com- 
meneing from 24th June) quite put a stop to their cul- 
tivation. The rotation recommended by our landlord 
is two years in Grass, a white crop, a green crop, and 
again a white crop, with Grass-seeds. Of course we 
may cut the first year’s Grass, if we like ; and need not 
take up the Grass fields after two years, unless we 
choose. We rather think the most of our out-field 
land will require to remain in Grass three years. We 
do not approve taking hay especially from our out-field 
land, but occasionally do so, as from so much tile leading 
our horses have had hard work. Iam very desirous of 
getting into a regular right system, now that the draining 
is nearly over. We have for some years just been taking 
what fields we could get drained out of lea; and until 
all the land was safe for our sheep, we could not keep 
so many as we shall now do. Our ewes are Leicester, 
and half-bred Cheviot and Leicester, from which we 
take three crops of lambs, selecting always our best. 
ewe lambs to keep up our stock, and sell the draft ewes 
fat in Sept. or this month; we have lately sold the whole 
lot over head at 35s. ; when we sell our lambs in July, 
at “spaining,” we get 20s. or sometimes more. This 
season we have kept them all, and sold the bullocks 
we should have fed, had the Turnip crop been better. 
We have 30 cows, and rear their calves, feeding the 
bullocks at 23 or 33 years old, and selling the heifers 
in calf, excepting those we keep to stock up our dairy 
with. Thus we breed and rear all our stock, having 
scarcely any good land capable of feeding stock fat, ex- 
cepting sheep on seeds, Previous to the tile. draining, 
we could not grow Turnips for our sheep, but had more 
land in Grass, and took Turnips for our sheep in winter 
and spring, and only kept a flying ‘stock, purchasing 
Cheviot ewes every autumn, taking one crop of lambs, 
and selling them the following season, which was at- 
tended with much risk and trouble. We could not feed 
any cattle for want of Turnips ; therefore, sold them 
generally in autumn, or the heifers in spring. Now we 
have all the benefit of the manure of the sheep at home, 
and these three last winters have made large quanti- 
ties of rich manure, from feeding 15 to 25 cattle on 
Turnips, oil-cake, grain, and Linseed ; besides feeding 
our cows also on these : but we have not such quantities 
of straw for litter as induce us to adópt your excellent 
method of feeding cattle and sheep in boxes, as our 
land is best suited for Oats, and we rarely grow 
either Barley or Wheat; neither soil or climate being 
adapted for it. I fear you will find this detail tedious 
and uninteresting. We arefar behind in many things. 
—Farm, Dumfriesshire. 
[The following are extracts from the pamphlet whielr 
was printed by the H. S. in their Ag. Jour. in 1842, 
and which our correspondent has kindly sent us ] 
Tilery. “ A plan, combining economy with efficiency, 
was adopted to suit the views of responsible and respect- 
able tors, who und k the fi ing of 
the tiles. The result has been in every respect most 
satisfactory. 
In the season of 1841, the number of tiles made, was— 
86,478 three-inch tiles 
and 29,671four-inch do, 
Total .. 916,149 
* The kiln was drawn 20 times, giving an average of 
15,8075; tiles for each kiln, 
D 
ates of drawing the kiln each time, 
April 29 June 14 August 2 September 14 
May 10 22 10 25 
81 19 October 2 
31 July 10 31 16 
June ept. 7 
«The quantity of coals used was 154 tons. 
In 1842, the number of tiles made was 221,796 three-inch tiles, 
and 21,204 four-inch do. 
Total .. 243,000 
“The kiln was drawn 14 times up to the 18th Septem- 
ber, when a sufficient number for the season was ob- 
tained, giving the average of 17,3577 tiles for each kiln. 
Dates of drawing each kiin full, 
July 19 September 9 
18 
May 3 
14 
18 29 
23 27 Aug. 6 
31 July 11 9 
“The quantity of coals used was 113 tons 15 ewt. 
There was also burnt in 1842, 1500 soles for the bot- 
toms of drains. More have not been burned, as slates, 
suitable for soles, are obtained at a lower cost. It will 
