PREFACE. 



vii 



remove all obstacles to the cultivation of Flax and hemp in 

 India, and more particularly to prepare other fibres which 

 are, in his opinion, very far superior for many purposes to 

 Flax or hemp. He has had them spun as wool, mixed in and 

 scribbled with wool, and coloured with wool, and latterly spun 

 upon cotton machinery, as if cotton, by the Messrs. Birley 

 Brothers, of Preston, and also on silk and Flax-spinning 

 machinery with great success; therefore, his object in 

 publishing this work, is, to give cheap and wide-spread 

 information on the value of the various plants of India, which 

 he has by his inventions, made as fine and all but as valuable 

 for many purposes as silk, and by such discoveries he feels he 

 has added some links to the great chain of national wealth 

 derived from our factories in Great Britain and Ireland. 



Secondly, the author confidently asserts that the mainspring 

 of his labours is the knowledge of the profits derivable from 

 the growth of Flax, and a wish to see these profits enjoyed by 

 his countrymen, instead of, as at present, by foreigners. 

 English farmers do not know how profitable the continental 

 growers find the Flax crop to be, and not only does ignorance 

 -on the subject prevail, but gross misrepresentations are still 

 abroad ; and as it is his earnest wish to see both of them finally 

 removed, the work has been compiled by him as a contri- 

 bution to the cause. He has endeavoured to show in its pages 

 that the real interest of the landowner and farmer would be 

 served by the extended cultivation of the Flax and hemp 

 plants. The one will find himself benefitted by the higher 

 cultivation which such crops require, and the other will find 

 them to yield him greater returns than any of the grain crops 

 he now grows. 



The author knows from experience that, at the low prices of 

 farm produce, agriculture is at present, in most hands, a very 

 bare, if not a losing business ; and he will be happy, if his 

 endeavours to promote an extended cultivation of Flax and 



