STATISTICS OF THE FLAX TRADE. 



233 



In the preparation of these articles, the cost for labour cannot be 

 less than one moiety, or perhaps two-thirds of the whole amount. 

 An overwhelming consideration ! ! ! And when it is remembered, 

 also, that the circulation of these millions at home in the culture 

 of the plant and preparation of the fibre would find employ- 

 ment for the redundant population of this country, and render 

 the payment of rates nominal, the subject demands the most 

 serious investigation. Should it be inquired upon what I 

 found my calculations, I reply, upon 750,000 acres of flax that 

 are annually imported for the use of our spinning-mills, and 

 upon the amount of wages at the rate only of six pounds per 

 acre. Under the supposition that the number of acres may be 

 doubted, I refer to the 56,000 barrels of foreign linseed, con- 

 taining seven bushels each, sold in Ireland this year, and calcu- 

 lating the number of acres sown with this, and with native seed, 

 at two bushels per acre, it will be found that a breadth of land 

 exceeding 200,000 acres has been appropriated to flax. Last 

 year 112,000 acres were given in the county of Ulster alone. 

 Now, in the most favourable seasons 200,000 acres would not 

 K produce half the supply required for the Irish mills. We may 

 B therefore easily perceive that 750,000 acres of flax fall much 

 beneath the quantity required by the English, Irish, and Scotch 

 spinners. In Norfolk, last year, between four and five hun- 

 dred acres of flax were grown ; affording employment to many, 

 particularly to the more inefficient and juvenile population, 

 who would, otherwise, have remained in destitution and idle- 

 ness. The beneficial effects arising from the various flax 

 operations in progress at Trimingham and other places are 

 daily seen, effects that undoubtedly tend to promote the moral 

 and social interests of the parties employed : and when it is con- 

 sidered that three or four thousand pounds must be circulated 

 in the shape of wages before the crops referred to can be 

 brought to market, it is evident that were the culture propor- 

 tionably extended to every part of the kingdom, similar results 

 would follow, and the universal benefits conferred surpass cal- 

 culation. I therefore venture to repeat that the subject 

 demands the most serious investigation, and in order to facili- 

 tate the inquiry I confidently direct public attention to the 

 operations of the East Suffolk Flax Association, because the 



