148 



DICKSON'S KEPLY TO PROFESSOR LOWE'S 



food. Hemp may be raised on the poorest class of soils, 

 provided sufficient manures can be supplied, and Flax 

 can be raised in unlimited quantity in the countries with 

 which we carry on trade, from the north of Europe 

 to the south of it, and all over the fertile continent of 

 America.' 



"Now, to use the professor's own words, every old 

 woman who can remember that every farmer used to 

 grow his own lint, knows this ; therefore, there is nothing 

 new in the professor's common sense teachings ; but I 

 say they do not know, in general, that it requires 

 great skill, energy and attention, to produce the finer 

 quality of Flax, and therefore the science requisite to 

 be taught, by men entitled to have added to their names 

 * Professor of the Arts of Agriculture,' is the more to be 

 desired, as this is a fact that cannot be disputed (as I shall 

 prove before I conclude this letter), and as Professor Lowe 

 appears to be incompetent to give any instruction on the 

 subject, and is silly enough to condemn those who differ from 

 . him, and are practically acquainted with Flax-culture, and to 

 impute to them ' a desire to deceive others,' I shall endeavour 

 to brighten, if I do not enlighten, the Professor's under- 

 standing, not by such assertions as he has made, when he talks 

 of the 1 enormous bounties ' that were given in England and 

 Scotland (up to a few years back) to induce farmers to 

 cultivate the crop, but by giving the names of successful 

 cultivators of Flax, their residences, and the year they found 

 their experiments to answer; and as the Professor in the 

 following extract, studiously avoids telling the year in which 

 the 'enormous bounties' were discontinued in England and 

 Scotland, but merely says i a few years back,' so that it might 

 appear to have had government aid very lately. I now insist 

 on him to name the year when such e enormous bounties ' 

 ceased, and to say what was the amount of such bounties, 



