AS A PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT. 



123 



for twelve months to about 217 persons, whose wages amount 

 to £2,217 6s. 8d. ; add £75 for the Flax, you arrive at the 

 value of £2,292 6s. 8d., the elements of which sprung from 

 about lA. 3e. 16p. of land, Irish measure, and the entire when 

 furnished, will yield a very remunerating profit to the 

 manufacturer.' 



" Now, with proof such as this before the eyes of land- 

 owners, that three statute acres can be made to pay and 

 employ 217 people for a year, I do think it should arouse a 

 feeling of desire for experiments in this country. If the 

 operatives in one part of the three kingdoms are so alive to 

 their interest in the production of this article, why have we 

 not more of it here ? We make glad the hearts of the French 

 and the Belgians, and care nought for the many aching ones 

 at home. Not only does the demand for fine continental Flax 

 increase — the importation in 1842 being 55,113 tons ; in 1843, 

 62,662 tons ; and in 1844, 70,000 tons— but the price con- 

 tinues to advance, although. Ireland produced one-fifth more 

 in 1845 than she did in 1840; and now fine Irish Flax 

 commands a market at enormous prices, in proof of which I 

 shall here relate what I heard the other week from a gentle- 

 man in Manchester engaged in Flax-spinning. He told me 

 that 180 stones of fine Flax had been bought in Derry at 15s. 

 per stone, and brought to Tanderagee and sold at 20s. per 

 stone, and from thence to Belfast, and sold to a firm (spinners 

 in Lisburn) at 21s. 6 d. As this is not a solitary instance, I 

 think proper to notice it, because, in my opinion, there is not 

 only an advantage in Flax-growing over all other crops that 

 the land will produce, if attended to with skill, but the grower 

 has ten times a better chance of gaining a prize than he whose 

 time and capital are employed in what is termed J bringing 

 animals to perfection.' 



" The Flax-grower who knows his business can tell, as he 

 watches the progress of his crop, the extra profit he will have 



