From the details already given, it appears that the flax trade is attended with many difficulties, and that consi derable labour and industry must be bestowed betwixt the sowing of the seed and the period when the article is fitted for disposal in the market. These operations, perhaps are inconsistent with the ordinary occupations of a farmer, and suggest the propriety of dividing labour, and separating the raising of flax from the culture of other crops. The farmer may sow the land; but there his labours ought to cease. The assistance of another person ought then to he employed, and the processes of pulling, watering, and switching, be executed under his management. This we believe to be the Dutch and Flanders method; and unless some system of that na ture is adopted in Britain, flax husbandry will never thrive, nor become a staple trade in the hands of a corn farmer.
About twenty-five years ago, this article was ex-ten sively raised in East Lothian merely for the seed, which was sold to other districts. It was, for that purpose, sow n upon fresh moors, and a handsome return was generally received from land comparatively or little va lue. The zeal, however, of those, who attempted this new method of raising flax, was damped by the difficulty, which often occui red, of finding purchasers; and it does not appear, that it will soon be revived. Seed, however, was raised of a quality equal, if not superior, to that imported from Holland; but the prejudice, in favour of foreign seed must be removed, before that which is raised at home can find a ready market. That a partial renewal of seed may be necessary, will not be disputed; but that it ought to be imported every year, seems highly absurd. Some farmers have sown flax-seed, raised on their own land, for ten successive years, with out perceiving any degeneracy ; and why it should be otherwise with this, and not with seeds of other kinds, cannot be explained. When a degeneracy takes place, in this as in other seeds, a change is certainly requisite; but an annual importation of what we might raise for ourselves, must be regarded as a public loss. The mo ney, which is ni this manner sent out of the country, might be applied to a better purpose.
Before we leave this article, an observation may be offered, which most of our readers will agree to be well founded; namely, that the legislature of the country has paid more attention to farming laws, or regulations, re garding the husbandry of flax, than to any other branch of rural economics. It is well known, that the venders of flax-seed in this country are obliged, by law, to pro duce certificates to a purchaser, that the seed sold, is not only the growth of a particular country, but also that it was produced in a particular year; and, should any fraud be discovered on the part of the vender, he is se verely punishable, according to certain laws enacted for that express purpose. All this may be very well, and
we find no fault with it; but if these statutory enact ments are right with regard to flax-seed, why are they not extended to seeds of every description ? Considering the immense quantities of seed grain and seed grasses sent from London annually to every part of the king dom, and the great losses which farmers, in numerous instances, have sustained, from receiving grain or grass seeds of had or imperfect qualities, it would be equally good policy, were the legislature to establish some re gulations, whereby evils so great, and so generally com plained of, might in future be avoided. Why attention has not been paid to these matters, whilst the growth and sale of flax-seed has been thought worthy of being regulated by particular statutes, can alone be attributed to the predilection long shown by the government of Britain to every thing connected with trade and manu facture. Perhaps the value of grass-seeds sent annually from London, ten times exceeds that of all the flax-seeds vended in the island ; and yet the greatest trade is open and unprotected from frauds, whilst the inferior one is guarded and protected on every hand. The way of car rying on the grass-seed trade of London is well known to most persons. The old seeds on hand, some of them even two, three, and four years of age, are mixed and remixed together, till qualities of every kind are there by produced. Sales, in the market, are never at a stand, even in the heat of summer; and the purchaser to-day, after making a suitable intermixture, will appear in the market to-morrow, and endeavour to gain a profit from the article thus manufactured and prepared. Were certificates required of the age of grass-seeds, matters could not be conducted in this Manlier, provided that the sellers were liable to heavy penalties, when these certificates were contrary to truth. We by no means recommend, that the growers and sellers of grass-sceds should be exposed to unnecessary trouble ; but surely it can be no hardship upon any man, when lie sells an ar ticle, to certify the year of its growth. If the purchaser is pleased to consider the seed, that is of the greatest age, as the preferable sort, then lie has only himself to • blame in the event of his money being thrown away ; but give him fair play. Let him know the year of its growth, and whether it is British or foreign seed, and he must trust to his senses for the rest. A very con siderable number of farmers, are, at the best, but im perfect judges of the quality of grass-seeds; hence they are entitled to some share of legislative protection.