iv 



DEDICATION. 



accordance with the facts and principles embodied in the 

 several " Irish Farmers' Reports/' I therefore trust that these 

 inferential proofs of the importance of the cultivation of Flax 

 at home, and especially in India, may deserve the serious 

 consideration of your Lordship and colleagues, and that they 

 may obtain such attention from the Legislature as the present 

 exorbitant prices of imported Flax really demands. 



Independently of the general argument, there are special 

 reasons why the landowners should patronise and urge the 

 cultivation of Flax ; and amougst the most powerful of them 

 is, the necessity for growing the most profitable crop in order 

 that the permanent improvement of the land, by increase of 

 drainage, roads, buildings, &c, may prove to be a remune- 

 rating operation, and there is a necessity why landlords and 

 the richer tenants should set an example in cultivating this 

 plant, for farmers generally do not possess the energy or 

 enterprise which marks our merchants and manufacturers, 

 when once satisfied of its profitableness, ready to turn their 

 attention to anything when they require the influence of 

 example, the work of the more wealthy and independent 

 classes, to set them going. 



When, however, their attention shall have once been turned 

 to the subject, and experience shall have taught them their 

 true interests, there can be no more doubt of their surpassing 

 the farmers of Belgium and Holland in the cultivation of Flax, 

 than there is of the superiority which they have already 

 attained in the other branches of industry. Undoubtedly, 

 if we could retain, for our own use, or even send forward to 

 British India, the millions of gold we annually pay to our 

 Continental neighbours for Flax, hemp, linseed, and oil-cake, 

 we should confer a benefit on the nation at large, and on our 

 farmers in particular, if they could be persuaded to grow it. 



If, however, our British and Irish farmers will not enter 

 the field of competition with the Continental farmers who 

 grow Flax and hemp, while our spinners and manufacturers 



