Cultivation of Flax. 
547 
well proportioned, and sound, be assured he is not the animal 
Hkely to beget good stock, let his spirit and tout ensemble be what 
they may. 
Lastly, the farmer desirous of breeding valuable hunters can- 
not be too intimately acquainted with the racing calendar and 
stud-book, which are the fountains of all knowledge relating to 
the propagation of our best breed of horses, a large proportion 
of whose blood must enter into the composition of the first-rate 
hunter of the present day. 
The calculations of profit in breeding horses are liable to many deduc- 
tions. Amongst cart-horse dealers mares are not in request for the higher 
markets ; but in the carriage-horse trade they are inadmissible, nor will 
Ihey as hunters command an equal price in the fair, whatever they may 
do in the field, and yet the chances as to sex may be considered equal. 
Next to sex in importance is colour, over which the breeder has no con- 
trol. In carriage- horses it most materially atFects price, and has a certain 
influence on every description of horse. 
The author admits that his calculations are in the rough, and favourable 
to the breeder. The very moderate profits which even under these cir- 
cumstances he holds out, would be greatly decreased if average provision 
were made for mares missing foal, accidents in foaling, expense and risk 
m castration, the unavoidable series of diseases to which young horses are 
subject, accidental blemishes, and above all, in carriage-colts, the galled 
shoulders, chafings, kicks, blows, &c., leaving blemishes to which those 
broken-in or worked in the farm teams are so invariably subject. The 
circumstance, also, that the spring fairs are usually those selected for the 
purchase of draught and carriage horses, entails a very increased expense 
in getting them into condition, beyond the summer and autumn fairs, 
when grass has for the most part sufficiently prepared them. 
H. Handley. 
XXX. — On the Cultivation of Flax. By G. Nicholls, Esq. 
I BEG permission to address the Council on a subject which I 
believe to be of great general interest, as well as one of especial 
importance to the agricultural classes — I mean the cultivation of 
flax. 
In my little work, " The F'armer," * published in the spring 
of this year, I endeavoured to impress upon our English farmers 
the policy of their introducing flax crops as a regular portion of 
their system of management. I did this under a conviction of its 
great importance to them, as well as to the country generally. 
We all know, however, how difficult it is to establish a new prac- 
tice, more especially if it requires previous forethought and ar- 
rangement, or if the benefits derivable from it be not very obvious 
and immediate; and I cannot hope that the recommendations 
contained in my little work will have had much effect, or that the 
• Published by Mr. Charles Knight in his series of * Guides to Trade.' 
VOL. V. 2 o 
