238 



On Clausse7is Flax- Cotton. 



Scotland ; in the midland counties of England ; by Sir Richard 

 A. O'Donnell on the western shores of Galvvay and Majo ; 

 upon rich and poor, clayey and gravelly, alluvial, and indeed upon 

 almost every variety of soil. 



That it is not, when properly managed, an exhaustive crop, 

 was clearly demonstrated at the meetings of the Agricultural 

 Society in February, during the discussion which took place 

 upon the general question of flax cultivation and the invention 

 of the Chevalier Claussen. Amono^ other noblemen and ^en- 

 tlemen conversant with the subject, who then expressed their 

 opinion, was Lord Monteagle, who stated that some of the 

 land which he had sown with flax had been previously rather 

 exhausted, but that by cultivating the crop well, that land had 

 become better than any other on his estate; no meadow, 

 indeed, yielded such capital grass as that on which the flax had 

 been grown. Mr. Druce, of Ensham, in Oxfordshire, stated 

 that he grew excellent turnips in the same year on his flax 

 land without manure, and that his son had found that some 

 wheat sown after flax was one of the best crops he had ever 

 grown. In Somersetshire, he stated, it was a standing proverb 

 that *'good wheat crops always followed flax." The opinions of 

 Sir R. A. O'Donnell, Mr. Warnes, and several other experienced 

 flax-growers, w^ere quoted to the same effect.* 



Possessed however of the m.erely negative quality of not ex- 

 hausting the land more than any ordinary crop, we should hardly 

 feel justified in calling the attention of agriculturists to a consi- 

 deration of the importance of flax cultivation. Our agricul- 

 turists require not merely a crop which has the recommendation 

 of not being greatly exhaustive, but also one which is remunerative 

 in its character. Upon this point, too, ample proof exists to show 

 that flax possesses this desirable property. Turning to the last 

 Report of the Royal Irish Flax Society, we find that particulars 

 are there given of the flax-crops of 51 farmers of the county of 

 Down, the average profit obtained being at the rate of 71, \s. A^d, 

 per acre. In the cases of these gjrowers, however, not one of them 

 had saved the seed — a portion of the crop equally as valuable as the 

 fibre — for one qJ the great advantages of flax is that it is a double 

 crop, producing both seed and fibre. We have given an instance of 

 the profit resulting from the fibre alone. In cases where the seed 

 only is saved, and the straw or fibre is used as litter, the crop is 

 equally profitable. An instance of this occurs in the case of Mr. 

 Beare,of Norfolk, whose crop yielded 26 bushels of flax-seed ; and 

 in that of Mr. Fuller, who stated at the meeting of the Royal Agri- 



* Mr. Fox, of Beaminster, has just pulled several acres of very fine flax, grown after 

 turnips, without manure. These instances show that flax may occupy any place in 

 the ordinary rotation. 



