OF MR. GOWER RELATIVE TO FLAX. 



227 



have left an erroneous impression on the meeting that flax 

 must fail to remunerate, because the process of hand-scutching 

 could not be performed for less than 3^. per stone. 



I shall not, on the present occasion, attempt to combat Mr. 

 Gower's peculiar notion, that flax pulled in a green state will 

 weigh one-third more than if allowed to arrive at maturity ; 

 but [ cannot so briefly glide over the " very striking instance" 

 he adduced of the exhausting efl'ect of the crop ; because the 

 flax to which he refers was no other than that grown by the 

 Hon. W. R. Rous, at Worstead ; and which, according to the 

 detailed account published by that gentleman, realized a clear 

 profit of 9Z. per acre, after deducting rent, tithe, rates, tillage, 

 manure, seed, steeping, &c., and also scutching at 85. per stone. 

 The crop was abundant, averaging from three to four feet in 

 length. Some of the stalks, that exceeded four feet four inches, 

 I had the pleasure of exhibiting at the Council of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, and at the Derby meeting. 



Under these circumstances it is only reasonable to suppose 

 that the soil was in some measure exhausted. But suppo- 

 sition is not proof, and therefore Mr. Gower ought not to have 

 asserted that " So exhausting was it to the land, that fourteen 

 loads of manure per acre were put on the land where it was 

 pulled off"," till the effect had been absolutely tested by a suc- 

 ceeding crop. The result would, probably, have been in favour 

 of the produce after flax, rather than after mangold grown in 

 the same field. Undoubtedly fourteen loads of manure were 

 applied to the land, but for a purpose far diff"erent from that 

 adduced by Mr. Gower. The truth is simple, and easily 

 explained. Mr. Rous was desirous of sowing turnip-seed 

 immediately after the flax, and of securing two crops in the 

 same year. Manure was therefore resorted to, and turnips 

 obtained of so excellent a quality that samples were exhibited 

 at the North Walsham Root -Show, and the circumstance of 

 their having been grown after flax in the same year published 

 in the Report of the Farmers' Club, by the Secretary, Mr. 

 Gower himself. The land in question was sown with linseed 

 on the 2nd of April, 1843, and the account of this interesting- 

 experiment first conveyed to the public through the ' Norwdch 

 Mercury,' of which the following is a copy : — 



Q 2 



