188 



GROWING FLAX NOT PREJUDICIAL TO WHEAT. 



their flax^ because the supply, although imported to the 

 amount of nearly six millions a year, is scarcely equal to the 

 demand. In truth, the flax-spinners of England require a 

 more abundant supply, from our own resources, and at a 

 cheaper rate, in order that the price of linen may approximate 

 to that of calico. This, I am persuaded, can be obtained, and 

 would be the means of finding employment, not only for the 

 redundant rural, but also for the manufacturing, population. 

 The limits of a letter will not admit of lengthened arguments 

 to prove the soundness of my theory. But it must be evident 

 to every inquirer — 1st, that such an immense quantity of flax 

 as we now import is subjected to many heavy charges, and that 

 many thousands of foreign hands were employed to prepare it 

 for exportation ; 2ndly, That if we grew an equal quantity in 

 this country, it would require just as many thousands of our 

 own hands to reduce it to a similar state. These would have 

 to be mainly drawn from manufacturing towns, because the 

 rural labourers would be wanted to prepare the seed, form it 

 into compound to fatten cattle, and perform the labours conse- 

 quent upon the new system of grazing. 



An apprehension has been expressed that my object in intro- 

 ducing the cultivation of flax was to supersede that of corn — to 

 raise the price of provisions and lessen the means of subsist- 

 ence; hence the loudly expressed alarm, ''We cannot eat flax.'* 

 It certainly might appear to the superficial reasoner that the 

 appropriation of land to the growth of flax would necessarily 

 diminish the supply of wheat. But a careful investigation of 

 the subject will soon disperse this fear. It will be discovered 

 that the best flax is grown upon wheat stubble — that upon 

 strong soils, in particular, flax is an excellent crop to precede 

 wheat — that as flax will flourish on newly broken-ujD soils, it 

 will evidently be the means of bringing into regular cultivation 

 large tracts of barren land — that it will require less than two 

 acres to every hundred now in cultivation, to supply the pre- 

 sent demand for flax, independent of foreign aid, from which 

 infinitely more tons of linseed would be obtained to fatten 

 cattle than were ever imported of oil-cake in one year — that, 

 throughout my pamphlets, previous letters, and present series, 

 published during the past four years, I advocate constant work 



