150 DICKSON'S REPLY TO PROFESSOR LOWE'S 



were continued up to within a few years back, and the 

 bounties given were usually equal to several times the rent 

 of the land. While the bounties were paid the Flax was 

 produced, but the moment the bounties were withdrawn the 

 production of Flax ceased along with them. Farmers are not 

 usually so blind to their own interest as to require bounties to 

 induce them to make great profits from their land ; and the 

 farmers of Ulster who have long continued to raise Flax after 

 its production in England, have certainly not been making 

 £20 or £25 an acre from any part of their farms. 



But the notion ' has again been spread that Irish agri- 

 culture is to be revived by extending the cultivation of lint, 

 and the Irish farmers have been told that they will make £4 

 an acre by the seed alone. Linseed, along with other sub- 

 stances, is certainly an^excellent food for animals, and should 

 be more used than it is ; but linseed can be obtained in any 

 quantity we please from countries in which the growers would 

 be pleased with a profit of £4 an acre, even though the Flax 

 itself was burned ; and if linseed be a good food for cattle, so 

 are Swedish turnips and clover, the cultivation of which would 

 do infinitely more to improve the agriculture of Ireland than 

 if half the province of Ulster were employed in the production 

 of Flax.' 



' ' Now, as the learned professor, in addition to his assertion 

 respecting the i enormous bounties of a few years back/ which 

 I say, without fear of contradiction, is erroneous, continues to 

 be sceptical as to the profits made by cultivating the Flax- 

 fibre, and tells farmers they can have seed from foreign 

 countries for £4 an acre, a civil hint that in his superior 

 judgment they should send away their cash and not grow the 

 crop. It will be evident that he is anxious they should be 

 guided by the words of a poet of the old school, who says — 



' Be not the first by whom the new is tried, 

 Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.' 



