108 



DICKSON ON FLAX AS A 



has requested me to get upon the court table, but I feel that 

 I am in my proper position in the advocate's seat, for I am an 

 earnest advocate for extending the cultivation of the Flax 

 crop." After having aptly criticised Mr. Beamish's remarks 

 as being an indictment against the Flax crop, for having done 

 serious injury to some land in the county of Cork, " He hoped 

 the gentlemen present would be willing to listen to every 

 exculpatory evidence in its behalf." He (Mr. Eeilly) replied 

 to a question put to him by Mr. Macartney that " He would 

 caution gentlemen farmers from engaging to any great extent 

 in the cultivation of Flax, unless from the humane considera- 

 tion of giving employment to the labourer." 



Mr. Walker, an extensive County Down farmer, and who 

 annually cultivates from forty to sixty acres of Flax, came 

 forward at the request of the noble chairman to state the 

 result of his practice. He (Mr. Walker) said that, " After 

 many years experience of Flax- cultivation, he found there 

 was a profit on an average crop of from £15 to £20 annually, 

 per acre, after payment of all expenses. The rotation he 

 would recommend from practice was a five- course shift ; the 

 Flax to be sown in every alternate rotation ; some other crop 

 to be taken during the intermediate one, but on no account 

 should Flax be sown at shorter intervals than seven years. 

 He found that Flax did not deteriorate the soil for producing 

 any other description of crop, although, when sown too 

 closely in succession, the Flax crop itself was not so good as 

 when sown according to the rotation he had stated." In 

 answer to a question put by Sir Percy Nugent, he (Mr. 

 Walker) said that, iC A small portion of the Flax next the root 

 was injured by the clover, but he also found that the clover 

 was materially benefitted by being grown with a Flax crop. 

 It was a crop which gave to the labourer more employment 

 than any other, and at a time of the year when labourer's 

 services were little required ; as a large farmer could have his 



