REMARKS ON THE FLAX SUBJECT. 



147 



The general price of Flax is, — 



Riga, £35 to £45 per ton. 



Dutch £50 to £80 per ton. 



Belgian £60 to £180 per ton. 

 Therefore, £60 is a fair average. 

 "As the imports for the last nine years do not show an 

 average of more than 67,000 tons of Flax annually, the 

 increase in 1849 is here evident, and is a proof that if the 

 growing of wheat will not pay for tilling the waste lands 

 in Ireland, the growing of Flax should not be overlooked, 

 especially if we keep in recollection that five millions 

 sterling worth 'of Flax, spun into yarns and woven into 

 linen goods, would, in addition to giving permanent 

 employment to thousands^ if not millions, of the ivorking 

 and starving classes, bring into the country twenty millions 

 of gold annually ; — for example, what has made Belfast what 

 it is, but the linen-trade of Ulster — or what is it that 

 caused that flourishing town to double its population within 

 the last fifteen years, but the great Flax-spinning factories 

 of the Messrs. Herdmann and Co., and Mulholland and 

 Co., who employ 3,500 people in their establishments? 

 The professor should visit it, and be able to give more 

 than ipse dixit evidence why Flax-cultivation should not 

 be encouraged or recommended. 



"However, in his work he tells us that — ( Another source 

 of hope which has been supposed by some to be open to 

 farmers, is by the raising of certain plants more profitable 

 than those now cultivated, and especially lint (Flax) and 

 hemp. Doubtless it may be well in certain cases to vary 

 the objects of production ; and lint and hemp are plants 

 easily cultivated, and have frequently yielded good profits 

 to the grower; but it must be remembered that we are 

 subjected to the same kind of competition with produc- 

 tions of this class of plants as of those used for human 



