99 8 



Flax-Growing in Ireland. [march, 



no remedy can be prescribed. There are, however, a number 

 of others, for example, the inferiority of seed, and defects in 

 handling, regarding which some action might be taken which 

 would render the yield less precarious, and a number of 

 suggestions are made by the Committee on these points. 



A factor which influences to a material extent the cultiva- 

 tion of this crop in Ireland is found in the circumstance that 

 flax is not an essential part of the rotation of crops, as prac- 

 tised in Ireland. Temporary grass, grain, and green crops 

 are what the farmer usually cultivates. Their systematic 

 rotation is essential to the system of husbandry suited to 

 Ireland, as they are necessary either for the cleaning and the 

 amelioration of the soil or for the maintenance of the stock 

 kept upon it. Flax, however, is not required for either the 

 one purpose or the other, and the farmer merely grows it 

 as a stolen crop between two of the staple crops in his rota- 

 tion whenever he happens to have a piece of land specially 

 suitable for its growth, or when the prospects of a good 

 price for fibre are attractive. So necessary are grass, grain, 

 and green crops for the farmer's general operations, that, 

 notwithstanding a bad return in any one year, he is bound 

 to keep his land for a few years at least under the essential 

 crops of the rotation. To lay it out to pasture or to change 

 materially the rotation of staple crops would take some years. 

 It is only a prolonged period of bad seasons or of depression 

 of prices that brings about a general reduction in tillage and 

 a corresponding increase in pastures of a permanent character. 

 The rotation, therefore, exercises a steadying influence on 

 the area under ordinary tillage crops, but does not so affect 

 that under flax. Since flax is not an essential crop in a 

 rotation, the farmer, in growing it, is determined by one 

 consideration only, viz., the net return he will get for the 

 crop. Accordingly, a year of profitable return is generally 

 followed by an increase in the area, while a bad year has, of 

 course, the reverse effect. This rule, however, only holds 

 good so long as the area under tillage and rotation is main- 

 tained, and so long as the period of depression is not con- 

 tinued to such an extent as to admit of the art of growing 

 and handling flax being entirely lost. 



Among other points dealt with by the Committee are 



