442 



On the CaJtivation of Flax. 



Seeing then that flax is not of necessity an exhausting crop, 

 but on the contrary, under proper management, a highly restora- 

 tive crop ; and seeing that the application of machinery to the 

 spinning of flax has so reduced the price of linen as to bring it 

 into successful competition with fabrics formed of cotton, thus 



liied above at three millions and a half per annum), we should displace 

 com now grown in the British Islands to at least three-fourths of that 

 amount ; yet that such is the fact, a few sentences will suffice to show. 

 To avoid even the appearance of impugning in the smallest degree Mr. 

 Nicholls' statements, I will take his figures as the basis of my calculation, 

 and assume in round numbers that 70,000 tons of flax are annually im- 

 ported, and that (as is subsequently stated) forty stone of flax (value 

 *7s. 6d. per stone) is the average produce of a reasonably well cultivated 

 acre of flax. At this rate the 70,000 tons of imported flax would require 

 280,000 acres of land for its production. In what state must this land be 

 to produce forty stone of flax per acre? Mr. Nicholls very justly con- 

 siders it indispensable that the land should be "clean and in good tilth," 

 i. e., precisely in the state in which it is best fitted for producing corn. 

 Now, if in England, as in America or Australia, there existed an almost 

 unlimited extent of fertile but uncultivated land, then, indeed, it might 

 be taken for granted that any article of import which could be grown at 

 home, would be a saving to the nation of the whole sum formerly paid on 

 that account, because the previous products of the soil need not be dimi- 

 nished to make room for it ; but in England every acre, of even moderate 

 fertility, has its work to do, and no new crop can be introduced without 

 displacing an old one. Ther only way therefore of calculating the pro- 

 bable advantage of extending the cultivation of the flax crop, is by 

 striking a balance between the net produce of an acre of flax, and that of 

 the same acre if otherwise cropped. From personal observation in Bel- 

 gium, I can state that it is there an invariable rule to put the land into 

 higher condition for flax than for any other crop they cultivate, and if the 

 land is not in this high condition before sowing, they apply very large 

 quantities of liquid manure to the growing plant. If further confirmation 

 of this were needed, I would refer to Mr. Rham's Report on the Agricul- 

 ture of the Netherlands (see Journal, vol. iii. p. 245), where the ma- 

 nure for an acre of flax is stated at 12 tons of dung, 50 barrels of urine, 

 and 5 cwt. of rape cake. I do not suppose that any such manuring as 

 this would be requisite or even advisable in this country ; but / have no 

 douht that an acre of land which is able to produce forty stone of flax 

 (value 7s. 6d. per stone) would, in an average season, produce at least four 

 quarters of wheat. The 280,000 acres required to produce the flax now 

 imported, would therefore produce, if cropped with wheat, 1,120,000 

 quarters worth (at 7s. per bushel) 3,136,000/., which approaches tolerably 

 near to the estimate given by Mr. Nicholls of the value of the imported 

 flax, viz., 3,490,000/. The value of the flax-seed has not been taken into 

 account, conceiving that what was not required to sow again would be 

 consumed on the farm : should it, however, be valued for sale, credit must 

 on the other hand be taken for the wheat straw, which is also supposed to 

 be converted into manure. It is clear from the preceding rough calcula- 

 tion, that though the cost of the fl^ax imported annually into the United 

 Kingdom is very great, yet that the balance in favour of substituting it 

 for other crops is not so large as to make it a matter of great importance, 

 independently of the question of employment for the labourer, which is too 

 extensive a question to be discussed in a note. H. S. Thompson. 



