114 



DICKSON ON FLAX AS A 



sum sufficient to pay the expenses of cultivating an acre ; and 

 we have plenty of proof that from twenty-nine to thirty- 

 two bushels of seed per acre were produced last year in 

 Norfolk. Again, Mr. Stephen asserts that the Flax-crop 

 varies in weight from three to ten cwt. per acre, according to 

 the soil and season; and taking the highest produce, five cwt. of 

 dressed Flax, at the highest price in 1844, £6 per ton, the 

 yield would be £31, from which deduct expenses of beetling, 

 scutching and heckling, waste, and loss of straw for manure, 

 and the profit will not exceed £8 per acre. 



Now I confess this calculation is to me a complete puzzle, 

 and as I cannot make out what he means by addition, 

 substraction, or multiplication, I am of opinion that either Mr. 

 Stephen or I must go to school before writing more on this 

 subject. £6 per ton the highest price for Flax in 1844 ! — 

 whoever heard of such a price? the yield £31 and profit £8 

 per acre. Does Mr. Stephen mean £6 per cwt., and that 

 there was £31 worth of Flax, less expenses, growing, etc., 

 amounting to £23 per acre, leaving £8 profit ? I cannot 

 make more of this; however, I should like to see the items 

 that make up £23 expenses, incurred in growing one acre of 

 Flax, having said that £8 will cover it all. 



There is nothing in his observations that so completely 

 proves his ignorance of the value of Flax and the expenses 

 incurred in its cultivation, as his bringing forward as part of 

 the farmer's expenses the heckling, as in no instance has the 

 spinner ever been known to purchase from a farmer heckled 

 Flax, as the Flax is always sold by them in the rough state 

 after being scutched ; he also asserts that ' ' in harvesting the 

 Flax-crop we are placed in a dilemma, either the quality of the 

 Flax or the seed MUST BE SACRIFICED :" there can be nothing 

 more preposterous than this assertion. 



No man that ever grew Flax could fall into such an 

 error as to represent that either must be sacrificed. If the Flax 



