172 NEW EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED. 
Though I am well aware that Government experiments are 
not likely to prove profitable where those undertaken by indi- 
viduals have failed, especially as these had good scientific and 
practical advice, I am yet sanguine in thinking that experi- 
ments conducted in the localities I have indicated, would give 
information which would be practically of great value for exten- 
sive tracts of country. The people are acquainted with the 
culture and preparation of Sunn fibre, and might easily be in- 
structed by the European gentlemen to whom I have alluded, 
in applying the instructions for the culture of Flax in the 
‘Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of India’ for the years 
1840 and 1841, including those prepared by M. Deneef, the 
Belgian farmer, after practical experience in India, published 
first in 1840, and then in 1842. 
I have not thought it necessary to refer to the opinions 
respecting the exhausting nature of Flax as a crop. By the 
methods of steeping the stalks in steam and hot water, it has 
been ascertained that the time required for the separation of 
fibre can be very greatly reduced ; while the steep-water, where 
no fermentation has taken place, has been proved to be useful 
as manure water for the soil. Feeding cattle, moreover, upon 
a portion of the seed, produces manure which is invaluable in 
restoring much of what has been taken from the soil. But as 
these methods are not applicable to the present state of the 
culture in India, I will only allude to the probability of some 
of the mechanical methods of separating the fibre from the 
green flax, as very likely to be of useful application.” 
Since, according to some accounts, considerable success at- 
tended the experimental culture of Flax in India, while others 
considered it a failure, it is desirable to ascertain the causes of 
this discrepancy, and to draw some conclusions which may be 
of use to other parts of India, if not to the places where the 
experiments were made. This we may probably effect, by 
analysing the statements of the different experimentalists. 
Shahabad Experiments. 
The cultivation of Flax in India in recent times seems to have begun at 
Shahabad, in 25° of north latitude, in the year 1837. In the ‘ Proc. of the 
Agri.-Hortic. Society,’ there is a communication from Mr. G. Leyburn, of 
