HEMP AND FLAX DO NOT IMPOVERISH THE SOIL. 



97 



INGENIOUS PLANTERS CONCUR IN DECLARING IT TO BE A 

 VAIN PREJUDICE, UNSUPPORTED BY ANY AUTHORITY ; AND 

 THAT THESE CROPS REALLY MELIORATE AND IMPROVE THE 

 SOIL. 



Therefore as hemp and flax can be raised at home so much 

 to the improvement of our lands, the employment of our poor, 

 and the interest of the nation at large, I am very solicitous 

 that this subject may come seriously under the consideration 

 of your Annual Meeting, and receive ail possible encourage- 

 ment from your public-spirited and truly laudable Society. 



Agriculture in the County of Argyle, hy John Smyth, D.D. 



Few things would contribute more to the advantage of this 

 county than the raising a great quantity of flax, for which 

 our soil and climate are well adapted. Our chmate is warm 

 and moist ; and we have a great deal of good sandy loam, 

 which is the best ground for flax. If the culture of this plant 

 were extended as far as the other operations of the farmer 

 would allow ; or if the ground, when tilled, were let to the 

 poor, or to persons who, as in Holland, would make it their 

 sole business to attend to it, it would prove an immense benefit 

 to the county, and furnish employment to the poor, especially 

 to the female part of them, in every stage of its manufacture.* 

 When the crop is tolerably good, the produce of a single acre 

 may be estimated at 15/. on the field, at 20/. when it comes 

 from the mill, at 60/. when spun into yarn, and at more than 

 100/. when wrought into cloth and bleached. 



The attention of the farmer, and the industry of the poor, 

 should therefore be directed, as much as possible, to a matter 

 of so great and general importance. When this shall be the 

 case, the minds of some of our landowners, who now depopulate 

 their estates, will be more enlightened ; and they will perceive 

 that the riches or productiveness of their estates must depend 



* In the higher parts of Perthshire, adjoining to this county, the ordinary 

 farmers commonly pay all their rent by the sales of linen yarn. 



H 



