68 



DICKSON ON THE 



In calculating the number of pounds of dressed or hackled 

 Flax required to make one bundle of line or Flax yarns, from 

 No. 22 lea up to 180 lea, it must be observed that 1 show but 

 from ten pounds to five pounds of clear or dressed Flax from 

 fourteen pounds of rough undressed Flax ; and that as Flax 

 is required to spin fine, it undergoes the process of being 

 drawn oftener over the finer hackles, and as a consequence, the 

 more tow and less Flax becomes produced. I have, therefore, 

 thought proper to notice the drawings or tow, as it is called. 



By the late improvements in machinery this tow can be 

 spun into yarns nearly as fine in quality as the Flax, and the 

 waste is now very trifling. Tow being the shorts from the 

 Flax fibre, it is more like (in nature) Cotton than Flax, and 

 therefore the yarn from it, although it can be spun level and 

 round, is not strong. It is only adapted for weft or drills, 

 diapers, coarse and light cheap linens , however, it can be spun 

 to great perfection, and although the prices of linen yarns are 

 much below the prices in 1834, the spinner's profits are not so 

 much reduced as might at first sight appear, from their being 

 able, by improvements in machinery, to take more yarn from 

 the tow than it was possible for them to do ten years ago, and 

 therefore they have less loss by waste from the original weight 

 of the rough material. 



I look upon these improvements in machinery and reduc- 

 tion in prices as a permanent benefit to Flax-spinners, as well 

 as to those who manufacture and wear our linen goods, inas- 

 much as the prices are now so low that the article competes 

 with cotton, and as a consequence, our home consumption 

 increases as well as our exportation, which continues to 

 improve. 



The quantity of Flax required in the spinning of one 

 bundle of yarns containing sixteen hanks and eight cuts, 

 appears in the table, and as the amount I have placed opposite * 

 each quality will be found to be the prices of the day, the 



