274 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
With our usual deliberate and conservative ] 
mode of proceeding, and our veneration for 
things as they are, we shall probably follow, in 
this matter, the same course of action which 
has characterized the education question, the 
sanitary question, and the agricultural applica¬ 
tion of the refuse of towns. We shall discuss 
it for the next twenty years, proclaim the at¬ 
tempt to be visionary, theoretical, hopeless; 
and shall only set ourselves at work in earnest 
to grow a larger breadth of flax by the time 
peace shall be proclaimed, and the Americans 
shall be in possession of the void which Russia 
has left inur market. 
We sincerely hope the prophecy may be ful¬ 
filled, and that the energy of our people will 
take full advantage of the opportunity now 
offered them to fill the void. 
Our importation of flax, for the ten years end¬ 
ing 1851, amounted to 70,000 tons annually. 
In the three years 1840, 1841, 1842, the aver¬ 
age annual importation was 62,500 tons. For 
the three years 1848, 1849, 1850, it had in¬ 
creased to 83,800 tons. The difference may be 
considered equal to the produce of 84,000 acres. 
The number of spindles employed in the Uni¬ 
ted Kingdom in spinning flax amounted, in 
1851, to 1,068,000; of which Ireland had 500,- 
000, Scotland 303,000, and 265,000. The great¬ 
est number of spindles out of Britain is in 
France, which has 350,000; but on the conti¬ 
nent, in general a vast amount of flax contin¬ 
ues to be spun by hand. Belgium has 100,000 
spindles, Holland only 6,000, Russia 50,000, 
Austria 30,000, the States of the Zollverein, 
80,000, Switzerland 12,000, and the United 
States of America 15,000. 
America is our best customer for linen. Thir¬ 
ty-nine millions of people in the States consume 
annually more than two yards each, to the value 
of Is. 3|d. sterling; Canada takes to the value 
of Is. 6Jd. per head; while Europe, with a pop¬ 
ulation of 228,000,000, takes only l-38th of a 
yard each. The difference between the de¬ 
mand from the New World and the Old, arises 
from two causes—the first is the pertinacity 
with which high duties on imported linen are 
maintained in most of the countries of Europe; 
the second is the preference for cotton garments 
which prevails in Asia and Africa. 
Besides the extensive and continually-increas¬ 
ing quantities of flax fibre which we receive 
from other countries, we import annually 650,- 
000 quarters of linseed, and 70,000 tons of oil¬ 
cake. As one of the first commercial effects of 
the war, our flax mills are running short time 
for want of flax; and in addition to the loss 
which our farmers will sustain from a diminish¬ 
ed supply, and an increased price of guano, 
they will soon suffer from a deficiency of oil¬ 
cake. These difficulties must be overcome by 
an increased growth of flax, and the consump¬ 
tion by cattle on the land of linseed grown 
upon it. 
Let it be borne in mind, that besides this 
large importation into the United Kingdom, 
there was grown in Ireland alone, last season, 
over forty thousand tons of dressed flax, the 
produce of 175,000 acres, which gave (esti¬ 
mated) employment to 56,000 persons for on& 
year , whose wages amounted, even at their low 
rates, to five millions of dollars. 
Again, look at the large amount of seed and 
oil-cake, which would be much more largely 
consumed, if the price ruled moderately and reg- 
larly. From such statistics an idea may better 
be formed of the extent of the flax and linen 
trade. 
It will strike some of our readers with aston¬ 
ishment, that in the United States we only run 
15,000 spindles for flax, against 1,068,000 spin¬ 
dles in the United Kingdom. Again we say, 
why should this be ? 
The article closes as follows: 
The great obstacle to the growth of flax in 
England, is the want of an intermediate interest 
to buy the straw from the grower, and to pre¬ 
pare the fibre for the spinner. Conducted on 
the old system, it is only adapted to small occu¬ 
pations, like those of Belgium and Ireland. 
Even in Ireland, the want of this intermediate 
interest is strongly felt, and strenuous exertions 
are being made to supply it. New processes of 
preparing the fibre are moreover being intro¬ 
duced, which cannot be carried on upon the 
farm, but require separate establishments, and 
which appear likely to supersede the old meth¬ 
od of steeping, just as the steam-driven spindles 
and power-looms have superseded the spinning- 
wheel and hand-loom. 
Two years ago the most promising of these 
new processes appeared to be that of Schenck, 
which consisted in steeping the flax in hot wa¬ 
ter, and thus effected, in from 72 to 69 hours, 
what under the old system occupied from two 
to three weeks. In 1852, 20 retteries on this 
system were established in Ireland, besides sev¬ 
eral in England. 
Since then, two other processes have been 
patented, which, as far as trials on a small scale 
have gone, appear to be superior to Schenck’s, 
both as regards the saving of time and expense. 
One of these is by Watts. It consists of steam¬ 
ing the straw instead of steeping. The other 
method is Buchanan’s, who operates by means 
of repeated immersions (about 10) in hot water, 
kept by a very ingenious contrivance from ex¬ 
ceeding a certain temperature. The process is 
conducted by means of cheap and simple ma¬ 
chinery, by which labor is saved, the risk of 
loss from carelessness avoided, and the time re¬ 
quired for the preparation of the fibre is reduced 
to 12 hours. The system is now being tested 
on a commercial scale in Scotland. 
It has been well observed that the chief im¬ 
pediment in the growth of flax, consists in the 
question, “ Who is to begin ?” The farmer does 
not grow flax for the want of the rettery, and 
the rettery is not established for want of the 
flax. Another difficulty arises out of the con¬ 
tinued improvements which are going on in the 
processes for preparing the fibre, and the per¬ 
plexity which this occasions among those who 
are disposed to embark in the undertaking, as to 
which they shall adopt. The scarcity of flax, 
however, which the war is producing, will pro¬ 
bably lead to a cutting of the knot. The man¬ 
ufacturers, in their eagerness to obtain a supply, 
will be inclined to make a little dash in estab¬ 
lishing retteries. 
They will commence with Schenck’s as that 
which has been the most tested; and if they 
find that either of the new processes prove bet¬ 
ter, they will, with the usual manufacturing en¬ 
terprise, re-model their establishments, and 
adopt the new processes without delay, and re- 
, gardless of cost. 
The manufacturers are the parties who should 
make the first move, by establishing retteries, 
and offering a liberal price to the farmers for 
their straw. The districts best suited to the 
experiment, are those in which the cultivation 
of flax formerly flourished, and in which the 
agricultural population are not wholly strangers 
to its management. 
These remarks apply on this side the Atlantic 
as well as the other ; but let not our farmers be 
discouraged; already markets are opening for 
their flax straw in New-York and elsewhere, 
and machinery is rapidly being perfected which 
will take the dry straw and in a few hours trans¬ 
form it into dressed flax without breaking the 
fibre. In other respects our ingenious machin¬ 
ists will soon meet the emergency. We are col¬ 
lecting all the information we can obtain on 
these points, to lay before our friends on an early 
day. 
Since the above was in type, we notice in our 
advertising columns, a call for flax straw, to 
which we direct the attention of farmers. We 
would observe that the dressed flax will com¬ 
mand a much higher price in proportion, and 
the bulk will of course greatly affect the freight, 
an important matter to those at a distance. 
REVIEW OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
The following letter from an old subscriber to 
the American Agriculturist is rather flattering, 
but perhaps it is no more than just. Of that our 
readers can best judge. We give it as received. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Messrs. Editors: —And so you apologize for 
the last number of the Agriculturist , because 
hastily got out in advance, to give your printers 
(and I hope yourselves also) a holiday. 
But to the “ apology.” Gentlemen, there is 
no need of that. To my mind this is one of 
your best numbers; and there is sufficient in it 
alone to set up half a dozen kindred papers 
which I could mention, were it not as a certain 
old lady has declared, that “ comparisons _ is 
hodious.” Formerly in our club we took nine 
different agricultural papers, now we only take 
four, and some of us think if we were reduced 
to the Agriculturist alone, we should not suffer; 
for we find, sooner or later, that about all worth 
knowing gets recorded there from other jour¬ 
nals, and in addition we have your own edito¬ 
rials, which are seasonable, full, and above all, 
perfectly reliable , which is more than can be 
said of some others. It is this honest reliability 
which has secured our confidence so firmly in 
you. And then there is so much independence 
in your manner—every thing comes out so plain 
and matter of fact, and yet so courteously, none 
need take offence. As an instance of this last, 
I cannot help adverting to the little article be¬ 
fore me, page 264, on “ Great Butter Cows.” 
How keenly you smite a big story under the 
fifth rib—how courteously you put all brother 
editors on the right track of properly attesting 
their extraordinary paragraphs—but how aw¬ 
fully you spit the Oak’s cow. Allow me to say, 
that was a cruel tftrust. Why, did you not 
know, that this is the big gun of all our agricul¬ 
tural speakers in Massachusetts, whenever they 
talk upon domestic stock and its pretended im¬ 
provements ? And so you assert that to pro¬ 
duce 484J- lbs. of butter in 219 days, “ the cow 
must have been fed on butter!” Gentlemen, 
gentlemen, take care what you say, for it is on 
the record that she was fed only on buttermilk — 
though how much butter was in this milk, the 
deponent saith not. Well, I will say no more 
on this matter, for I suspect you will find you 
have now raised a hornets nest among us. 
To conclude this long letter, will you allow 
me to say, that I like your “ Farm Notes” very 
well—they are all matters of fact; I also like 
such descriptions as that of the “Farms of 
Messrs. Haines;” for we are curious to know 
not only what our nearer, but more distant 
neighbors also are doing; besides there are sev¬ 
eral instructive items mentioned—such as the 
“ Remedies for Blight in Pears,” and for “ Mil¬ 
dew on Gooseberries”—the manner of “ Keep¬ 
ing Poultry,” &c.; yet in some other articles I 
find rather too much of the descriptive. To be 
sure most of this is correspondence, which per¬ 
haps I ought not to judge so severely as I would 
grave editorials. But I will cease fault-finding. 
The article on “Spaying” strikes me as particu¬ 
larly valuable. Why should milkmen go 
through the risk and loss of annual calves for 
their cows ? It seems to me now as a very ab¬ 
surd process, after reading this valuable article. 
Were I a milkman, I would put the spaying 
process immediately in practice. 
Plymouth Co., Moss., July 5, 1854. 
SnEEP Farming in Australia. —The extent 
to which sheep farming has been carried is sur¬ 
prising. In 1852, about 200,000 bales of wool 
