314 IRISH MANUFACTURES. 
has been sold at prices which yielded to the farmer a larger profit than 
he could have obtained from any other crwp, and this ought to be a suf- 
ficient encouragement for the cultivation of the crop. 
The flax plant and the linen manufacture are two sources of almost 
unlimited prosperity. Ireland has an opportunity of becoming the great 
flax market of Europe. With plain ordinary care the crop may be 
grown and pulled in excellent condition. Mills, for dressing flax and 
preparing it for the mill, have been erected in many counties which 
last year produced flax on an extensive scale for the first time. There 
is no true reason for supposing that cotton will ever again be so cheap 
as to render the culture of flax in Ireland unremunerative. 
The cotton trade in Ireland is found in six counties only ; it has 
entirely disappeared from six. In 1862, there were 1,412 persons em- 
ployed in this trade in the county of Waterford, 639 in the county of 
Antrim, and 492 in the county of Dublin. There is not in any county 
a single instance of the number of cotton mills increasing since 1839. 
In Londonderry and Tyrone, however, it is new. In 1862, the total 
number of mills was nine, and the persons employed 2,734. A new 
factory has been lately erected in Drogheda. 
Sewed Muslins. — A great source of employment for females has of 
late years sprung up in the North of Ireland, in the working of patterns 
On muslin with the needle. Belfast is the centre of this manufacture, 
which employs about 300,000 persons, chiefly females, scattered through 
all the counties of Ulster, and some localities of the other provinces. 
About forty firms are engaged in the trade, some being Irish houses and 
others agents for Scotch firms, and the gross value of the manufactured 
goods amounts to about l,400,OO0Z. 
The woollen manufacture, which was nearly extinguished at 
the Revolution, revived for some time after, but is now confined to 
Dublin, Cork, King's County, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Queen's County. 
There appears to have been a positive decrease of factories in use be- 
tween 1839 and 1850, no doubt owing to a decline in the trade, which 
has revived since, and the discontinued factories have been reoccupied. 
The total number of counties manufacturing is ten, and in these there 
are only four in which there are 100 persons employed in the aggregate 
viz., Dublin, Cork, Westmeath, and Kilkenny. The trade has entirely 
left Kildare and Wicklow, and has been established in Fermanagh, 
Limerick, Meath, and Westmeath since 1839, and a great improvement 
has been made in the machinery. 
Silk manufactures since their introduction by French emigrants 
in the beginning of the last century, have been confined to Dublin ; its 
chief branch is tabinets or Irish poplins, which still flourishes. 
Paper Manufacture. — In 1860, the year before the repeal of the 
duty on paper, 9,314,985 lbs. were manufactured in Ireland, being an 
increase of 1,022,524 lbs. on the previous year. The quantity made in 
1847 was only 5,711,546 lbs. 
