82 



QUALITY OF BRITISH FLAX. 



lunary blessings (the only blessings which the Heathens 

 thought of) are derived. — The Chinese, who are, in their civil 

 polity, the wisest people that ever existed, esteem Agricul- 

 ture* to be the root of all power and riches ; and however 

 Commerce may seem, in this or any other country, to rival 

 Agriculture, yet it is plain that if it were not for the latter 

 the former could have no object. 



There is nothing more plain than that the land of Great 

 Britain is the foundation of all our riches, power, and com- 

 merce ; 't is to us the Mother of all the Gods, and ought as such 

 to be venerated by the legislature and every set of men. 



I shall not attempt to prove this from the well-known calcu- 

 lations of the importance of wool and other branches of manu- 

 facture, but confine myself to that branch which, I have often 

 said, I profess alone to understand, I mean the Linen trade. 

 For this purpose I shall endeavour to calculate the vast 

 advantage arising from that trade, by considering the vast pro- 

 duce arising from the cultivation of one acre of ground sown 

 with flax-seed. 



' Great Britain not only produces the largest crops of flax, 

 but the toughest and finest of any in the world ; our soil is so 

 proper for it, that unless the farmer mismanages his flax in 

 reaping, watering, or grassing, it is not in his power to raise 

 coarse flax. 



On the supposition, then, that the farmer shall apply the 

 same skill in choosing of land proper for a crop of flax as he 

 would do for wheat, I take it that an acre of land, at a medium, 

 will produce 50 stone, Dutch weight, of flax ; and an acre that 

 shall produce but 30 stone, I take to be amongst the worst oi? 

 crops, though I have known an acre to produce 100 stone. ' 



I shall suppose this 50 stone to be of such a fineness as to 

 be capable of being manufactured into cambric at IO5. per 

 yard. This 50 stone Dutch weight will produce 25 stone Eng- 

 lish of fine flax, fit for the said cambric, and 1 2 and a half of 

 inferior sort, fit for linen, at 2s. 6d, per yard; besides 12 and 

 a half of the coarsest sort, fit for making linen at 8<^. per yard.* 



* See Du Halde's Description of China, Vol. I. of Agriculture, and the 

 Privileges of the Husbandman, p. 172; Declarations of the Emperors in 

 Favour of Agriculture, pp. 457, 459. 



