122 



DICKSON ON FLAX CULTURE. 



look at the employment it afforded to the working population 

 where it was grown. I do not wish to offer a remark in 

 depreciation of that in which gentlemen take an innocent 

 pleasure, however much I may be disposed to think symmetry 

 (and not an over quantum of fat) perfection; but in my 

 opinion prizes should be offered to farmers- to produce and 

 bring to perfection what would be most profitable to themselves 

 and the country, if smaller sums should be offered for what is 

 more eye-sweet or fanciful. I am obliged to compare Flax- 

 culture and cattle-feeding because one has been overlooked and 

 condemned through prejudice, and the other appears to be the 

 leading subject of prize-lists and competition. I have said so 

 much through the public journals for the last twelve months, 

 on the profits that farmers may derive from Flax-culture, that 

 I shall now call the rich landowner's attention to the 

 results where the article is cultivated and manufactured, and 

 to the good feeling it is calculated to create between the 

 agricultural and manufacturing classes of the community. I 

 beg attention, therefore, to the following, which is from the 

 Belfast News Letters : — ( An improved fabric made from the best 

 qualities of home-grown Flax, denominated golden Flax, has 

 gained the first prize both for cambric and cambric handker- 

 chiefs, at the present November meeting of the Belfast Flax 

 Improvement Society of Ireland. We notice this in connec- 

 nection with the following summary of facts detailed in the 

 work by Dr. Kane, on the Industrial Resources of Irelandj 

 which fully goes to prove the vast importance of this branch 

 of our industry. We find it therein stated that near to War- 

 ringstown, three statute acres of land produced no less a 

 quantity than 100 stones of Flax, value £75 ; the produce of 

 this field was sold to an eminent manufacturer in the neigh- 

 bourhood (the very same that turned out the prize-web) for 

 los. per stone; this Flax, in the process of converting into 

 cambric pocket-handkerchiefs, will give constant employment 



