Vegetable substances: materials of manufactures / [Published under the superintendence of the Society of the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]. [Anon].

  • Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain)
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances: materials of manufactures / [Published under the superintendence of the Society of the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]. [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tories from our own resources. But although it has been partially grown for a long period in Eng- land as well as in Scotland, we have always been supplied from foreign countries with the greater part of our demand. In 1531 a statute was enacted, requiring that for every sixty acres of land fit for tillage, one rood should be sown with flax or hemp- seed *. In later times the legislature attempted to promote the cultivation of these plants by promising rewards and advantages. Both these measures be- long to the infancy of sound political knowledge, and were devised to avoid the imaginary evil of being dependant upon other countries. Throughout the whole of the last century, bounties, with various modifications, were granted on the im- portation of undressed flax from the British colonies in America. For the encouragement of the home cultivation, an additional duty was laid, in 1767, on foreign linen, which yielded a revenue of <£15,000, and this sum it was proposed to divide in premiums among successful cultivators of hemp and flax; but the English farmers were not incited to any imme- diate exertion by the hope of this reward, and for the space of fifteen years no candidate appeared to claim a premium. Flax is considered to be a great exhauster of the soil, and most probably the Eng- lish agriculturists found that they could employ their land more advantageously than in raising this plant. It is, however, at present partially cultivated in several counties. In Lincolnshire, Somersetshire, and Yorkshire more especially, a considerable quan- tity is raised ; it likewise continues to be grown in Scotland; and Ireland produces nearly all the flax it requires for its extensive linen manufactories, occasionally receiving small quantities from Holland. As the Irish cultivators do not preserve sufficient * Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce. B 3