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to prevent its culture in England, viz., on account of its ex- 
hausting power. On the old system the materials taken were 
lost, and life destroyed; on Schenck's plan, too dilute and 
too poor to pay to add to land with any chance of benefit ; 
but by Watt's process, a new food is found, and the valuable 
phosphates and nitrogenous compounds are returned to the 
soil with the most suitable conditions of fertilizing power. 
Thus our farmers are invited " to fresh fields and pasture 
new" and profitable. 
Among the most recent plans of chemical action to aid the 
flax processes, are those now much named by the press, 
by the Chevalier Claussen, to prepare a "cotton from flax.'' 
The name seems at first well chosen, but leads to the con- 
fusion of supposing that the flax changes its nature, and is 
converted into cotton. The process seems to be to thoroughly 
saturate the flax with carbonate of soda (or alkali), and then 
to decompose this, so that the gas at the period of evolution 
in the immediate neighbourhood of each filament adheres to 
some, and separating others almost instantaneously, converts 
tow and refuse of flax, &c, into a cotton-like substance ; the 
fabric is " split" into more minute division and complete sepa- 
ration than can be obtained by any mechanical means. It has 
been proposed to treat the refuse of flax to be had at a cheap 
rate, and bleaching it to produce a cotton-like substance ; 
but whether the cotton machinery can spin it without altera- 
tion, — whether it can take the place of cotton in all it proper- 
ties, — and whether it can be obtained at a price that will 
enable it to be so used, — are questions for the practical man ; 
and so far as statements go at present, the sanguine parties 
and the practical experimenters, have given results quite irre- 
concileable with each other. One party speaks of the economy 
of the process, while others speak of the great cost being per 
lb. more money for production that would purchase cotton in 
the market. These are questions for business calculations, 
