OUR MEANS FOR FLAX CULTURE. 



165 



No. IV. 



Sir, 



An inquiry has been made, as to what reference the 

 topics upon which I write can have to politics. 



I reply, that with the genuine principles of Whigs and 

 Tories, as such, my propositions do not interfere. But to the 

 schemes of that party who would extirpate British agriculture, 

 root and branch, they are diametrically opposed. 



Short-sighted, indeed, must such an inquirer be, who cannot 

 perceive that the want of employment is the source of our 

 national calamities. 



The fattening of cattle upon native produce, with the atten- 

 dant consequences, would increase the demand for labour, one- 

 fourth ; that is to say, where three men are now employed, 

 another will be required. 



And, with respect to flax, if the nine or ten milhons that are 

 now annually sent out of England to purchase this important 

 crop, could be circulated at home by the cultivation of the 

 plant, I think the inquirer would be at a loss to find any 

 redundant population at all. 



In St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich, Mr. Moore admitted that 

 the soil and climate of Great Britain were superior to any part 

 of the world for the growth of the plant, but, he added, The 

 people cannot starve till you grow flax." Mr. Gibson, M.P., 

 alluding to the Norfolk Flax Society, at a Manchester meet- 

 ing, made a similar exclamation. These gentlemen well know, 

 as do the editors of papers which formerly supported my plans, 

 that, if means were adopted to employ the people, their powers 

 of agitation would cease. That we, as a nation, actually possess 

 those means, it is my constant endeavour to prove. Obstacles 

 and prejudices are rapidly giving way ; the force of truth will 

 ultimately prevail ; and I am confident that the cultivation of 

 flax, the fattening of cattle upon native produce, box-feeding, 

 and summer-grazing, need only to be nationally adopted, " to 

 obtain for the redundant population the employment, agricul- 

 ture the support, and trade the encouragement, which each so 

 greatly needs ; because the cultivation of linseed, the making 



