t it contains a great deal of truth
and much common sense:--

"It has been proposed of late, with a considerable degree of
earnestness, to encourage the growth of flax in Britain. The attempt
was made some years ago and failed; but in the present instance it is
recommended with the view of raising flax-seed for feeding cattle in
sufficient quantity to render us independent of foreign oil-cake, of
which, no doubt, large quantities are annually imported, but to what
extent I have not been able to ascertain. The _object_ of the
suggestion is laudable, but the _end_, I fear, unattainable; for if
good _seed_ is raised to make good oil-cake, or compounds with oil,
the _flax_ will be coarse, and flax of inferior quality will never
pay so well as corn: and it should never be lost sight of, in
considering this question, that to raise flax must bring it into
competition with white crops, and not green crops, because to raise
it as a green crop would be to deteriorate its quality by bringing it
into immediate contact with manure; and, on the other hand, if it is
raised without manure as a fallow-crop, it must deteriorate the soil
materially--no species of crop being _more_ scourging to the soil
than flax, not even a crop of turnip-seed. There is, therefore, this
dilemma in the matter--the quality of the flax or of the seed must be
sacrificed. The seed separately will not pay the expense of culture.
Seed is produced from six to twelve bushels per acre. Taking the
highest at twelve bushels, that is, one and a half quarter, and
taking it also for granted that it all will be fit for _sowing_, and
worth the highest current price of 60s. per quarter, the gross return
would only be L.4, 10s. per acre. The flax-crop varies in weight of
rough dried fibre, according to season and soil, from three to ten
cwt. per acre; and taking the high produce, five cwt. per acre of
dressed flax, at the highest price of L.6 per ton, the yield will be
L.31, from which have to be deducted the expenses of beetling,
scutching, and heckling, and waste and loss of straw for manure, and
the profit will not exceed L.8 per acre; but though _such_ a profit
would certainly repay the expenses of cultivation, yet it presents
the _most_ favourable view that can be taken, even with the sacrifice
of the e