106 



DICKSON ON FLAX AS A 



certainly pay the expenses of cultivation, yet it presents the 

 most favourable view that can be taken, even with the sacrifice 

 of the seecL In Ireland, the case I believe will be the same, 

 though much of the soil of that country, being mossy, is more 

 favourable to the growth of Flax than that of England or 

 Scotland ; yet even there, it would be found impracticable to 

 raise good Flax and good seed from the same piece of ground 

 at the same time, and if the seed is not good the oil-cake 

 will be bad.' " 



Opinions of the present Flax Agitation in Ire- 

 land, page 1018. — " Mr. Henderson, the successful competitor 

 for Irish Flax exhibited at Belfast in 1843, gives his rotation, 

 of cropping as follows : — ( 1. Potatoes or turnips, dunged and 

 limed. 2. Winter wheat. 3. Flax. 4. Clover and rye-grass 

 cut for hay, being top-dressed with soot. 5. Pasture. 6. 

 Pasture. 7. Oats. 8. Flax.' Flax coming after a corn crop 

 as above, is injurious to the condition of the soil ; and sowing 

 down clover with Flax, after a white crop, is as bad hus- 

 bandry as can be, and were it practised on land which had 

 grown clover for a long time, clover would soon cease to grow. 

 In Ireland, where the culture of clover is but of recent intro- 

 duction, it may grow well for some time under any treatment, 

 but the Irish farmer should be aware of the nature of this 

 plant, and rule his practice by our experience, which would 

 warn him against putting so useful a plant to the trial here 

 recommended. Flax will, no doubt, grow of finer quality 

 after a white crop on land in good condition, or on soil 

 naturally fertile ; as on such soils it would be coarse, and apt 

 to branch, if grown after a manuring, and if the main object 

 of the Irish farmer is to desire to grow Flax of the finest 

 quality, it would be better to acquaint him at once of the 

 deteriorating effect of Flax thus cultivated upon the condition 

 of the soil, than to encourage him to make the other crops he 

 raises subservient to Flax, and to inculcate in him a wrong 



