162 



DICKSON ON THE 



causes of the prosperity of the province, compared with the 

 other three provinces. One would suppose the writer to be a 

 partner in Barclay's firm, or in the London Brewery Company, 

 whose great demand for barley makes them delight in seeing 

 so fine a harvest as this of 1864 has been. The currier 

 thought nothing was like leather; but the writer in the 

 Standard seems to think that nothing is like barley. Wherever 

 good Flax can be grown, prime malting barley can be pro- 

 duced ; but as newspaper writers are not infallible teachers, I 

 leave the profits on Flax-culture to be confirmed by such 

 practical gentlemen farmers as Mr. Druce, who would not lend 

 themselves to the " fabulous" statements supposed by the 

 writer in the Standard. 



Error No. 2 of the annonymous writer is this : — " The crop 

 was once extensively grown, but has ceased to be cultivated, 

 because it was found to be no longer remunerative." I chal- 

 lenge him to prove this to have been the case in Ulster since 

 the first mill was built in Belfast, in 1829, by Messrs. T. and 

 A. Mulholland. There was a falling off in Flax-culture and 

 in the linen trade of Ireland, from the peace in 1815, as from 

 that time the Leeds Flax Mills sprang up, and spun nothing 

 but the best Dutch and Flemish Flax, and the linen trade 

 gradually decayed, but the Messrs. Mulholland put a stop to 

 that by their spirited enterprise, and they and their partners, 

 Hind, Herd man and Co., deserve the credit of having saved 

 the linen trade as the staple of the counfoy. As to the cause 

 of the diminution of Flax-culture from 1851 to 1858, it is 

 evident the writer is perfectly ignorant. The Russian war 

 caused such a rise on grain crops that fanners turned to grain 

 in place of Flax ; but the wet seasons in Ireland were tlie 

 chief cause, for the price was a% low last year as ever I recollect 

 it for the last forty years, and I have been all that time 

 interested and connected with the Flax trade as a mill-owner 

 and agent. 



