L I N 
every fiieaf, being untied, is fpread on clean grafs-land. 
Here it lies to dry from five to feven days, unlefs a confi- 
derable {bower fall fooner; when it is to be turned, that 
both fides may be bleached alike; and it is fometimes 
■turned a fecond or third time. The bun is frequently 
tried, to fee if it be brittle, and part readily from the flax. 
They are all'o particularly attentive to obtain their flax of 
a lead colour, which complexion they value even more 
than the rottennefs of the bun. When bleached fuffi- 
ciently and perfectly dry, it is tied into (heaves, five or fix 
times "as large as the former, and carted into (beds or ricks ; 
whence it is fwingled and tied up for fale by profeflional 
labourers. The crop is from twenty-five to feventy (tone 
on an acre. 
The account of an acre may (land nearly thus: 
Average crop 40 (lone, at 9s. the medium price, 7 i3 
and the bounty a.d. together 5 3 4 - 
Current expenfes about 61 . add rent, taxes, af- ? g 
lelfments, and tithes, about al. 13s. 4d. } r 3 4 
Profit £10 o o 
This profit is very great; but what makes the crop of flax 
{till more valuable, is the additional employment it gives 
to the poor in weeding, pulling and tying, management 
of the pit, drying and fwingling," to the amount of four 
or five pounds an acre 5 the article of fwingling alone 
might go a great way towards giving employment to the 
poor in country parilhes during the dead months of winter. 
After the crop is off, the ground is cleared of weeds and 
grafs, and as foon as convenient is ploughed an inch or 
two deeper ; and rape-feed, from half a peck to a peck on 
the acre, according to the richnefs of the foil, is fown, 
from a week before to a week after Michaelmas. The feed 
Jolt in reaping and getting the rape produces a crop of 
green food for {heep, which is fed off early eftQftgh to 
prepare the ground for a fecond crop of flax. If a third 
amp be taken after oats, when that is off, a judicious 
mixture of grafs-feeds is fown, and the ground returns to 
meadow and paflure again. 
The following are the expenfes and profit of five acres 
of flax raifed in Shropfliire : 
£. s. d . 
Rent, including tithe 
- 18 
IO 
0 
Seed - - 
- 3 
3 
0 
Weeding, drawing, and flicking up 
- a 
O 
0 
Binding and carriage 
- - 0 
12 
0 
Threlhing and winnowing 
- 2 
2 
0 
Spreading, gathering, and carriage 
1 
14 
3 
Swingling, at is. per ftone 
-14 
I 
4 
- i 
42 
2 
7 
Produce. 281 (tone sib. at 5s. 
70 
6 
3 
Seed, 49 bufhels 
13 
7 
0 
Bounty - - 
■ $ 
88 
42 
13 
7 
2 
9 ? 
of 
7 
• x ' ' 
Profit £4/) 
4 
si 
There is no charge in the above account for ploughing 
and harrowing; it being ufual to give a large rent for old 
paftures, by thofe who make a bufinefs of railing flax, the 
perfon who lets the land engaging to plough and harrow 
it with his team. The above crop was confldered as a 
large one; yet the profit is fomewhat lefs than the pre* 
ceding ftatement, being 9I. 4s. iofd. per acre. 
The quantity of feed fown on an acre in the Ifle of Ely 
is two buihels, the coft of which is a guinea or there¬ 
abouts ; an experienced man is employed to fow the feed, 
there being few who underhand that bufinefs. No ma¬ 
nure is wanting, where clean or fward land is ufed, which 
is generally the cafe. The ground is ploughed but once, 
and harrowed fine. If rich, it will bring turnips, wheat, 
or clover, &c. after the fi;tx is off. The colt is about 3I. 
VOJ.. XII. No. 869. 
U M. 765 
an acre. The produce from twenty to fifty ftone, accord¬ 
ing to the land. When it is fit to pull, a man fliould be 
employed who knows when to put it into the dike, and 
when to take it out, there being much difficulty in ma¬ 
naging that point, without fpoiling the flax, It is 1 fup- 
pofed not to impoverifh the land, but to improve it. 
In Dorfetfhire the heft feed is annually imported from 
Riga, it being Confldered as very material to change the 
feed. It is generally fown broad-caft, abcut'the middle 
of April, at the rate of two bufhels to an acre, upon any 
ftubble, after only one ploughing, and clover-feed is often 
fown with it. It is ripe about the end of July, or begin¬ 
ning of Augufi, when it is drawn by hand, by women 
and children, and laid in fwarths till it is dry, then bound 
up in fmall bundles, and the feed is beaten out in the field 
where it grew, by a flail heavier than the common one, 
and the feed fifted clean into a large fheet; afterwards the 
ftalk is laid on ftubble or pafture ground, till it is com¬ 
pletely dried ; being often turned, and, if the w'eather be 
wet, fet up in fmall bundles. When it is fufiiciently dried, 
and fit to bark, which is called fwingling, it goes to the 
flax-dreffer, to be prepared for the manufacturer. It is 
always pulled up in a green ftate ; and is fit to draw, when 
the leaf on the ftalk drops, and the milky juice is dried 
up. The ftalk is never thrown into water, as is the com¬ 
mon practice of Lincolnfhire and other places; but attains 
its proper ftate more gradually, by what is called dew- 
ripening, or expofing it to the air and dews for a long 
time together. From eight to twelve bufliels of feed on 
an acre is efteemed a good crop ; dry feafons fuit it belt:; 
and the farmers think, if it be not fown more than once 
in fix years, it does not exhauft the land. This crop, be¬ 
tides the feed, produces from fifty to fixty dozen pounds 
weight on an acre of flax for {pinning, worth from 4s. 6d. 
to 7s. the dozen. Its value is generally from eight to ten 
pounds an acre, including the feed ; but it is a precarious 
crop, much dependant upon fealons. The land is fre¬ 
quently let to a middle-man, called a Jlax-jobber, who pays 
the farmer four or five pounds qn acre, manages the crop, 
finds feed and labour, and expeCts nothing from the far¬ 
mer but ploughing, and the difcharge of parochial taxes. 
The inferior leed, not good enough to be fown, is valua¬ 
ble for the oil which it yields. Two gallons may he ex¬ 
tracted from a bufhel of feed, which weighs about forty- 
eight pounds. The remaining hull or hulk produces the 
oil-cake, fo much efteemed for feeding cattle. Flax-feed 
is alfo ufed for the fame purpofe, by boiling or bruifing, 
and then fteeping it in hot-water. Where malt-grains 
can be had to mix with it, this food is of a very nourifii- 
ing quality. 
Flax in this country is by many degrees lefs vigorous 
and luxuriant than in Flanders, where the fine lace and 
cambrics are manufactured. They have a particular me¬ 
thod of managing flax in that country, which in French 
is called lui-rame. The land is ploughed and manured for 
it before winter; in the beginning of March, or fooner, 
according to the feafon, it is deeply ploughed again ; fome 
days before fowing they fpread upon the land fome pi¬ 
geon’s dung, and they cover the feed with a harrowing and 
rolling. When the flax is four or five inches high, they 
weed it with the moil fcrupulous attention, and then build 
a kind of cover hanging over the little plants in the fol¬ 
lowing manner. They ltick on both fides of the ground, 
bordering the ridge, fome ftroug wooden forks, about fix 
inches high, upon which they put poles along the width 
of tire ridge, in a direction parallel to the ground. Thefe 
poles are crofted by fmall fticks, branches of trees, &c. fo 
as to form a kind of grate full of holes, through which 
the plants of flax pafs, as they grow up ; by this method 
their Items have a good defence againft wind and rain, 
and their roots againft either exceiiive humidity or heat 5 
and thus their vegetation is very much benefited. The 
produce is very great; and, when it fucceeds well, the 
crop exceeds in value the land where it grows. The cul¬ 
ture, indeed, is very expenfive; for the requifite wood 
9 I coil# 
