236 



PICKS ON ON THE PROFITS OF FLAX 



peculiar method of native preparation, and not being decom- 

 posed by the usual mode of retting, has been prepared by 

 Dickson's liquid, and turns out to be equal, in strength and 

 quality, to Flemish Flax at £100 per ton. 



Archangel Flax — A sample of this, had from a mer- 

 chant in the city at £62 per ton, produced fibre as fine as 

 some kinds of silk, when prepared by the machines and 

 liquid; and has been valued at £200 per ton for the long 

 fibre, by a Flax importer. 



New Zealand Flax — This was sent by the Society of 

 Arts, who offer fifty guineas premium for the machine best 

 calculated to prepare it. The 56lbs. sent produced by machi- 

 nery I Tibs. Tozs. clean long fibre, unretted, worth £60 per 

 ton ; 6lbs. 14ozs. short fibre, unretted, worth £36 per ton ; 

 9lbs. 2ozs. tow, unretted, worth £30 — 33lbs. Tozs; waste, 

 22lbs. 9ozs. in dressing — total, 56lbs. The above Flax, when 

 prepared by the liquid, is as fine as Dutch Flax at £80 

 per ton. 



It is rather surprising that the people of Canada, with a 

 population increasing at the rate of 45 per cent, in five 

 years, do not appear to notice the advantages they may have 

 by turning their attention to Flax-cultivation, when they 

 must see by our English, Scotch, and Irish journals that Irish 

 hand-scutched Flax, usually sold at from 5s. 6d. to 6s. per 

 stone of 16lbs., is now 10s. 3d., and mill-scutched, formerly 

 from Ts. to 9s., is now from 10s. to 16s.* per stone. The 

 reader may form some idea of the rising prosperity of Canada 

 by the following extract : — 



" In the year 1842 the total revenue of Canada was 

 £365,000 ; in 1850 it was £704,200 ; and in 1856 had 

 reached £1,238,700. According to the census of 1851, the 

 population was 1,842,260, and by that of 1857 it was 



* The price in Armagh, 1864, is from 7s. to gs. 6d. per stone for mill- 

 scutched Flax, and 5s. 9d. to 8s. per stone for hand-scutched Flax. 



