130 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April, 
gage extensively in the growth of this crop, should 
secure the services of men who understand the busi¬ 
ness in all its branches. The day has passed when 
flax can be successfully broken and scutched by hand 
labor. Breakers and scutchers to be driven by steam 
or water power, are the only means that are now 
thought practicable to manage flax so as to make lin¬ 
en goods sufficiently cheap to compete with cottons. 
Machinery can be had that will not cost beyond $400, 
which will clean in a proper manner from 500 to 600 
lbs. of clean scutched flax per day. at an average 
cost, including the expense of rotting, of not more 
than two cents per lb. for clean scutched flax. Great 
improvements have been made in Ireland, in Scotland 
and in some portions of the United States, in the ma¬ 
chinery for the preparation of flax for market; and 
those who may extensively engage in the business, 
would do well to make themselves acquainted with 
those improvements, and employ such as have been 
found the most economical and efficient. 
The annual importation of all descriptions of 
flaxen goods in our country, cannot be much less 
than $10,000,000, and the high duty that is levied 
upon goods of this description, the exchange be¬ 
tween Europe and this country, the cost of trans¬ 
portation, &c., afford a guarantee of the most sub¬ 
stantial kind, for the profitable prosecution of the 
linen business. Machinery for some years past has 
been in successful operation in Scotland, in the north 
of Ireland, and in Leeds, England, for the spinning 
and weaving of flax goods, which turns out linen 
fabrics of the finest staple at nearly as low rates as 
what it costs to manufacture cotton goods. In 
Massachusetts, and in Paterson, N. J., similar ma¬ 
chinery has been for some time employed in exten¬ 
sive linen and shoe thread establishments, and the 
prospect now is, if the farmers will only come up to 
the work as they might do by employing more skill 
in their business, that the United States before long 
will be as independent of other countries for linens, 
as they have nearly become in cotton and woolen 
goods. 
The value of a good quality of flax in England, 
may be fairly quoted at from $150 to $300 per ton, 
at which price it might be sent to that market from 
Ohio, netting a fair profit to the grower, if machi¬ 
nery of the most improved description and skilful 
laborers be employed in prosecuting the business. 
The annual importation of flax and flax seed into 
Great Britain for the past ten years, has cost $50,- 
000,000, and not a fraction of that money finds its 
way into the hands of the farmers of the United 
States. But what makes this matter still worse, a 
considerable portion of this flax is manufactured, 
on which the British manufacturer makes a large 
profit; it is then shipped to our country, a high duty 
is paid at the port of entrance; it is then sold at a 
considerable higher profit than if it were manufac¬ 
tured here. To place this great interest on its true 
and legitimate basis, we, as a people, must become 
not only the producers, but the manufacturers of 
linen fabrics, threads and twines; and by availing 
ourselves of the improvements effected in other coun¬ 
tries, where the growth and manufacture of flax is 
a leading branch of agricultural and mechanical 
industry, it w r ill be found to be productive of the 
most important results to the inhabitants of this 
State. 
I am highly gratified in being able to inform you 
that a beginning, for the first time, has been made 
in this city, in the manufacture of flax goods, which 
affords the strongest evidence that an entire revolu¬ 
tion will shortly be made in the business of flax 
growing in Montgomery county. The establish¬ 
ment is owned and conducted by Messrs. McCann, 
Carnegie & Co., who have embarked some $15,000 
in it, employing the most improved Scotch machine¬ 
ry, and also Scotch spinners and weavers. The 
firm purchase the flax straw of the farmers, paying 
for it at the rate of $7 to $10 per ton, according to 
quality and rot, break and scutch it themselves. 
The breaking and scutching apparatus are construc¬ 
ted on a plan very different from those in general 
use, which are driven by water power, performing 
the work with greater despatch and efficiency than 
any machinery for that purpose that has been intro¬ 
duced into this western country. The tow made by 
the scutchers is” manufactured at present into a 
strong and even carpet thread, and the clean scutch¬ 
ed flax is manufactured into twines, &.c., all of 
which will be sent to the Boston market. 
The Flax Rust— (Puccinia Lini.) 
EY AS A FITCH, M. D. 
In connection with the preceding article, we have 
thought it proper to give the following remarks, 
written for the forthcoming volume of the N. Y. 
State Ag. Society’s Transactions , in reference to a 
malady which has in some instances proved very in¬ 
jurious to the flax plant, and a considerable hin¬ 
drance to its cultivation.— Eds. 
The disaster of which we are about to speak, is 
altogether the most baleful of any to which the flax 
crop in Eastern New-York is subject. And yet, in 
but a single instance do we find any allusion to it, 
in the botanical and agricultural works which we 
have at hand, though some of these latter profess to 
treat of 11 all ” the diseases and casualties to which 
this crop is liable. 
In the Transactions of the Society of Arts of the 
State of New-York, vol. ii, pp. 185, 187, is a short 
article from the pen of the Hon. Ezra L’Hommedieu, 
entitled “ Description of a late disease in flax on 
Long-Island,” in which we are informed that this 
disease first commenced in the town of Bridge- 
hampton, near the east end of that island, about 
the year 1803, and the following year extended eight, 
or ten miles further, and within two years thereafter 
was all over the eastern part of the island, “ so that 
there is but little flax raised.” In 1806, the same 
disease attacked the crops in Pittsfield and Rich¬ 
mond, Mass. It is described as a small black speck 
about the size of a pin-head, sometimes with a slight 
black streak about half an inch long proceeding 
from it; and this spot, it is stated, comes only upon 
or near the middle of the stalk, and does not make 
its appearance till the flax is pulled and dried. We 
think this description is drawn from specimens in the 
incipient stage of their growth, or else that at that 
early day the disease had not developed itself so far 
as to put on the marks which it now wears. On 
being dressed, the flax-stalk, it is stated, breaks in 
two where this spot appears; and though the affec¬ 
tion was popularly regarded as a kind of mildew, 
Mr. L’Hommedieu thinks it more likely that it pro¬ 
ceeds from the sting of an insect, which lets out 
the sap or juice, and rots the stalk in that part— 
though he had been unable to detect any insect 
which he could regard as producing this wound. 
We proceed to give the facts that are within our 
knowledge, respecting this disease. 
The “ flax-rust,” as it is termed by our farmers, 
seems to prevail more in some years than in others. 
In 1846, several fields were badly injured by it. 
The past, year, 1849, which was noted for its drouth, 
there was scarcely any of it. Upon one point, our 
flax-growers generally concur. Where it does ap- 
