4 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



drawn, not from theory, but from successful practice, cor- 

 roborated by the experience of others, and recorded in 

 this volume. Hence their force ! And I entreat the 

 reader to reflect upon the facts adduced, remembering 

 that their correctness may be witnessed at Trimingham, 

 where every operation connected with the flax-crop is 

 constantly being conducted. 



Thus fortified, both by argument and by proof, I hesi- 

 tated not to accept invitations to appear at public meetings 

 in various counties, the leading object of my advocacy 

 being the employment of the poor. At all places my 

 recommendations were favourably received ; and I have 

 since learned that flax will be grown this year to a con- 

 siderable extent in the counties that I visited. I refer 

 with peculiar pleasure to Devizes in Wiltshire, where, 

 through Henry C. Shomberg, Esq., of Wans House, Chip- 

 penham, and the Editor of the ' Wiltshire Independent,' 

 I was introduced to an influential and numerous auditory. 

 I select from the report of my address at this meeting the 

 following extract, conceiving that an appropriate place is 

 here oifered for the repetition, and trusting that those 

 who have to sustain the weight of an unemployed popu- 

 lation may avail themselves of the relief proposed, 



" Mr. Warnes would now refer to the earnings of the 

 weaker hands engaged upon his farm in dressing flax; 

 that is to say, of the wives and children of the labourers, 

 whose wages, at best, were inadequate to the wants of 

 themselves and families. The augmentation, however, 

 afforded by flax-dressing and the other processes com- 

 pletely altered their circumstances, and rendered a man 

 with a family better off" than a man without one. For 



