FLAX MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 



171 



of Flax to work up, mills are m course of building, and 

 machinery will be erected, and as a consequence, those who 

 have built the mills must encourage the farmers to continue 

 the good work of producing what will pay them, and give 

 employment to the working classes in the winter season, 

 when out-door work cannot be done ; under such circum- 

 stances, is it not a crime on the part of any influential 

 journal to try by all the force of argument, without the 

 shadow of foundation in justice or truth to support such 

 opinions, to send forth such a warning as the Standard has 

 issued, as if it were the only guardian angel of Ireland, and 

 saying " that we depreciate its too universal production before 

 the demand for it is based on a solid foundation." Every man 

 that looks back at the returns must see, that the writer might 

 just as well tell the fishermen on the coast not to catch any 

 more fish, as he deprecated the production until he ascertained 

 the demand. 



Before I finish, and as I look back to the writer's 

 assertion of ' 'fabulous profits," and the Flax crop, 44 ceased 

 to be cultivated because it was found to be no longer 

 remunerative/' I have cut out from the Armagh Guardian 

 the following : — 



" Large Produce of Flax. — Mr. George Hobson, of 

 Ballyhagan, in this county, sold to Mr. Micheal Eeilly, in our 

 market on Tuesday last, the produce of six bushels of Flax- 

 seed, grown on three English acres, thirty-five stones to each 

 bushel, at 10s. 4Jd. per stone. The seed was bought from 

 Mr. Jacob Halliday, Belfast, and the Flax scutched at Mr. 

 John Walker Redmond's mill. The produce of the three 

 acres realized above one hundred guineas." 



If the above be not sufficient to prove that my argument 

 in upsetting the writer's remarks, and that what I say, " is 

 based on a solid foundation," I must leave the reader to 

 form his own judgment. 



