440 



conducive to the prosperous and successful cultivation of flax. 

 But there is another consideration which I conceive to be 

 most important in estimating the advantages of flax culture 

 in a populous country like England, which is, that out of the 

 expense of £12 per acre, incurred in raising the flax and 

 preparing it for the manufacturer, about £4 15s. pays the 

 cost of horse-hire, manure, rent, and taxes, and the remaining 

 £7 5s. is expended in the wages of manual labour ; whereas 

 in a crop of corn not above one-fourth of that sum is appro- 

 priated to manual labour. According to government returns 

 the annual importations of foreign flax are about 70,000 

 tons, for the payment for which a sum of about £6,000,000 

 is sent out of the country. This weight would occupy about 

 250,000 acres for its production, with an expenditure of 

 nearly £2,000,000 in wages, and a profit to the growers of 

 at least the same amount, — inducements, surely, sufficiently 

 potent to encourage the increased home-production of this 

 important raw material, not only from the dictates of that 

 all-powerful stimulus, self-interest, but from the more worthy 

 motive of patriotism. 



For many domestic purposes linen is far preferable to 

 cotton, and is constantly so used, although it has hitherto 

 been so much more costly. I need only allude to the beautiful 

 manufacture, so important to Ireland, of damask table linen, 

 the production of which would no doubt be greatly increased 

 by the cheaper and more extended growth of the raw material. 

 Two other articles would also be much more used than now, 

 if cheaper, being so far superior to their cotton substitutes — 

 I mean brown holland and linen checks, to which may also 

 be added, furniture prints and chintzes. For personal wear, 

 particularly for female attire, linen fabrics would be far pre- 

 ferable to cotton, not only from their greater cleanliness, and 

 the property of not so soon gathering dirt, but from their 

 much greater durability. On appealing to ladies of my ac- 



