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MR. HARDY ON FLAX -STEEPING. 



Menin, 7th Juhj^ 1844. 



Dear Sin, 



Since I last wrote you, on the 2nd instant, I have been up 

 the river Lys, for twelve or fourteen miles, for two days. I had 

 a person with me, who could speak a little English, at three francs 

 a day; and by him I gained a good deal of information. I never saw 

 so much flax in the water — in fact, all the way I went ; and I was in- 

 formed, that, further on, steeping was the whole work of the country^ 

 As I informed you, in my last, it is steeped in frames^ — they are very 

 like delf-crates. I find that no person ever thinks of spreading on the 

 grass, at this season. It is, after having been a sufficient time in the 

 water, put up on the butt end, in half sheaves, and well dried, two or 

 three persons going through between the rows, keeping it up, and ex- 

 posing it to the weather. About two good dry days will make it 

 nearly ready again to put it into stack, where it is kept until the 

 following March, before it is put on the grass to bleach, as every one 

 says here that March is the best bleaching time. This is all I have 

 seen, and, indeed, all I can, until the pulling commences, which will 

 be, in some instances, this week ; and I will be ready to go home on 

 the day I mentioned, viz., the 13th. After seeing so much of this 

 system of managing flax, of which I have so often heard, I must say 

 that it is the best I ever saio ; but the great drawback to the Irish 

 farmer is, the length of time he would have to want his money. In 

 fact, it cannot fully be carried out, in Ireland, until there be such 

 people as are here, to buy it on foot, and make a regular trade of it. 

 There is a person in Belgium at present from England, looking after 

 the management of flax ; and I am told he has engaged six or eight 

 Flemings to go over with him to England, to instruct them there. 

 Up in the direction where I was, and indeed all about here, the crop 

 this year is very poor, worse than any I saw in Belgium, in former 

 years, and much worse than a great deal about Tandragee, this present 

 year ; but I am told it is better in the St. Nicholas district. 



I am. Sir, yours, very truly, 

 James MacAdcmi, Ju?i., Esq. Thomas Hardy. 



By the rivers and streams that meander through our own 

 country^ many places might be found where competent persons 

 could be located, who, at a reasonable charge, would steep the 

 grower's flax upon the Belgian plan, and thus relieve him from 

 the weight of that all-important operation ; the after-processes 



