21S FLAX IN IRELAND. 

— 
wind and rain, and during a considerable portion of the year 
they were fed entirely on Indian meal and potatoes. 
[Annual Report of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland. Cd.239. Price 54d. 

FLAX IN IRELAND. 
The thirty-second annual report of the Flax Supply 
Association for the Improvement of the Culture of Flax in Ire- 
land gives the following information as to the results of the 
flax harvest of 1890. 
The area under flax in Ireland was 500 acres more than in 
1898, but only amounted to a total of 34,989 acres. The 
figures for these two years were lower than in any previously 
recorded year, and, as will be seen from the following table, 
both the acreage and production were only about one-half of 
the average of the past ten years. The deficiency has been 
made up by an increase in the imports, the net supply for the 
two years 1898-99 together being about equal to the ten year 
average. 



Year. Acreage. Production. | Imports. Exports. Net Supply. 
Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. 
1895 95.202 12.972 35.506 55253 43,225 
1896 725253 10,844 36.650 4,565 42,929 
1897 45,576 6,818 37 715 45446 40,087 
1898 34,489 6,284 34,440 3,634 37,087 
1899 34.989 6.743 40 145 | 35438 43,450 


Average for | 
Io years | 
1890-99. 69,324 12,254 | 32,383 


The Association have employed experts in the three dis- 
tricts of Coleraine, Broughshane, and Dromara for the purpose 
of assisting and instructing farmers in the cultivation of flax, 
and the Report states that as a result a general improvement 
throughout the districts visited has been manifested and 
higher prices obtained. 
