REMARKS ON THE FLAX SUBJECT. 



151 



' 1 However I shall bring forward a few experiments, state- 

 ments from practical men, that will serve to shake the nerves 

 and sceptical understanding of the professor, which statements 

 at the same time must go far to upset his theory and assertion 

 where he says (in his argument that £20 or £25 per acre 

 could not be made) — 'It would be very easy to show these 

 gentlemen (advocates of Flax-culture) that they have left out 

 some of the most necessary elements of their calculation.' 



' ' A tenant farmer, on Sir Robert Bateson's property, near 

 Mona, Mr. Hugh Dobbin, of Ballymagarahan, has just 

 informed me that in 1848, he sowed nine bushels of Flax-seed 

 on three Irish acres, which produced him 500 stooks of Flax 

 when pulled, and after being pulled, he took one-half or 250 

 stooks [to the pits he had prepared for steeping it in, and 

 according to the old Irish system, (which I dare say is 

 generally known in Scotland by the old women alluded to by 

 Professor Lowe) Mr. Dobbin watered, grassed, and scutched, 

 his 250 stooks ; and the other 250 stooks he managed after 

 the Belgian system. He kept an exact account of the outlay 

 and profit of each system, the results of which were as 

 follows : — 



