and established a factory for retting and scutching.

This spring several Americans have visited Ireland to obtain information, and it is probable that Schenck’s system of retting, originally invented in America for the treatment of hemp, will be adopted there for flax also.

In Canada some flax is grown, especially among the French ‘habitans,’ who have followed the early practice of their mother country in making linen for family use. The fibre does not constitute an article of export, though some seeds occasionally finds its way to England. In the colony of Nova Scotia an effort is now being made to establish the fibre, with proper machinery for preparing the flax.

The only other country of the American continent to which I have occasion to refer is Mexico. While, in the ‘tierra caliente,’ and the low lands generally, the plant could not be profitably grown, in the high table-land of the Andes, about Puebla and Orizaba, recent experiments have ascertained that it will thrive, the altitude and the genial moisture of the climate overcoming the disadvantage of intertropical heat. Scutching machinery has been taken out by some enterprising traders, and skilful persons engaged from Ireland. Mexico is a large consumer of our linens, and I believe it is in contemplation, if the growth of the raw material progresses favourably, to commence the manufacture of the fabric, as has already been done in the case of cotton.

On the continent of Australia, although flax has frequently been spoken of as a prospective branch of agriculture, I fear the great aridity of climate, and the scarcity of water for steeping, will preclude any chance of success, while the dearness and small supply of labour would render the culture unremunerative. In Van Dieman’s Land, however, it is stated, that some successful trials have lately been made, the climate having sufficient moisture, and the supply of water being pretty abundant. In New Zealand the Phormium tenax has so much occupied attention that few trials have yet been made of the Linum usitatissimum, with which it is often confounded, from the term flax being indiscriminately applied to both plants. I have no hesitation in saying, that from their humid climate and maritime position those islands should be peculiarly suited to its growth; and it is not at all unlikely, that, as population increases, New Zealand may be a large exporter of flax fibre.

From the foregoing survey, a few general facts may be gathered relative to the range of climate and soil in which the flax plant may be cultivated, with the peculiarities of the products, as affected by locality.

It will be seen that the temperate zone is the flax region par excellence, in so far that within its limits the fibre attains the greatest length and the finest quality. Northern latitudes, at the extreme verge of this belt, or beyond it, are unfavourable to the maturing of fine fibre, in consequence of the shortness and want of their summers. In order to perfect a soft, yet strong, pliable, and lustrous fibre, easily divisible by mechanical means into minute filaments, a slow and regular growth is requisite. Where a powerful sun draws the plant too rapidly to maturity, the fibre is hardened, splits with difficulty, and is wanting in silkiness. In inter-tropical countries the plant grows with sufficient luxuriance, but has a tendency rather to extend laterally in branches, bearing a large quantity of seed, than to push forward a slender, upright stem, almost or entirely branchless, while the fibre of hot countries is invariably coarse and hard.

Humidity being indispensable to promote regularity of growth, and to enable the plant to elaborate from the atmosphere the constituents of its fibre—chemical analysis having demonstrated that this valuable substance is chiefly derived from that source—maritime districts, especially those which first receive the evaporations of the ocean, are those in which the flax fibre is produced in the greatest perfection. Belgium, Holland, Denmark, the north west of France, the British Isles—especially Ireland—are all more favourably situated than countries within the same latitudes in the interior of the Continent.

As to soil, the plant takes an extensive range, and will, in fact, grow well on almost any kind, provided the climate be favourable. In the artificially enriched sands of Belgium, the polders of Holland, the clay-slate of Ulster, the peat of Connaught, and the limestone of central Ireland, excellent flax is grown. To show the variation of some of the leading constituents in flax soils, I give the following table of a few from analysis made by Sir Robert Kane, and by Messrs. Mayer and Brazier:—

But, notwithstanding the great diversity of soils in which flax will succeed, the alluvial deposits of rivers furnish the best fibre. Holland and Belgium, composed in great part of the alluvium brought down by the Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Meuse, are eminent for their flax; and in Ireland the low lands along river banks are, for the same reason, found to furnish a superior fibre. There can be no doubt that the supply of rich, friable loam, afforded by the yearly overflow of the Nile, has been the cause of Egypt so long continuing a great flax-growing country, while other fertile tracts of Africa, in the same latitude, have not cultivated it to any extent. For the production of seed, hot climates are the most favourable, the yield being greatest, and the seeds larger, plumper, and more oily than in temperate countries. Seed-crushers find the flax-seed of India the most productive, as it contains about 28 percent of oil, while Baltic seed gives but 22 per cent. In like manner, the seed shipped from the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, yields more oil than that from the northern parts of Russia.