164 EXPERIMENTAL CULTURE 
which produced this quantity of seed would yield, annually, at 
least 12,000 tons of fibre—value, say £500,000 ; all of which 
now goes to waste.” Besides the above quantity of seed, much 
is also exported to North America and to other countries, and 
much is consumed in the country in the form of oil, while the 
cake is in some places employed in feeding their cattle. There 
can be no doubt, therefore, that the question is one of con- 
siderable importance, not only to this country, which requires 
such immense quantities of Flax fibre, but to India, which 
produces such enormous heaps of seeds, and is supposed to 
waste so much of valuable exportable material. But it does 
not follow that the production of fibre is in proportion to that. 
of seed. Indeed, we have often to check vegetation, in order 
to favour the production of flowers and fruit; while an undue 
growth of the parts of vegetation, that is, of the stem, branches, 
and leaves, is often obtained at the expense of the parts of 
fructification. 
The subject, however, has not escaped notice. 
The earliest attempt to produce Flax in India seems to have 
been made by Dr. Roxburgh about the beginning of this cen- 
tury, as at that time, the East India Company having esta- 
blished a Hemp farm in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, he 
made many experiments on the substitutes for Hemp and 
Flax. He also cultivated Hemp and Flax in the Company’s 
farm at Reshera, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. 
Of Flax, he says, it is very generally cultivated during the 
cold season in the interior parts of Bengal and Behar. “Sam- 
ples of the Flax have frequently been procured by the Board 
of Trade, and sent to England to the Honorable Court of 
Directors, so that it is from home we may expect to learn its 
properties. Ifthe Flax has been found good, large quantities 
may be reared at a small expense, as the seed alone which the 
crop yields must be more than equal to the charges to render 
it profitable to the farmer.” (‘Obs. on Subs. for Hemp and 
Flax,’ p. 17.) 
The Author, as long since as the year 1834, stated in his 
‘Illustrations of Himalayan Botany’? “In India the Flax is 
cultivated only on account of its seed, of which the mucilage is 
valued as a demulcent in medicine, and the oil in the arts; but 
the plant, which in other countries is most valued, is there 
