Excerpt from The Fibre Plants of India, Africa, and Our Colonies
I therefore trust that these inferential proofs of the importance of the cultivation of Flax at home, and especially in India, may deserve the serious consideration of your Lordship and colleagues, and that they may obtain such attention from the Legislature as the present exorbitant prices of imported Flax really demands.
Independently of the general argument, there are special reasons why the landowners should patronise and urge the cultivation of Flax; and amongst the most powerful of them is, the necessity for growing the most profitable crop in order that the permanent improvement of the land, by increase of drainage, roads, buildings, c., may prove to be a remunerating operation, and there is a necessity why landlords and the richer tenants should set an example in cultivating this plant, for farmers generally do not possess the energy or enterprise which marks our merchants and manufacturers, when once satisfied of its profitableness, ready to turn their attention to anything when they require the influence of example, the work of the more wealthy and independent classes, to set them going.
When, however, their attention shall have once been turned to the subject, and experience shall have taught them their true interests, there can be no more doubt of their surpassing the farmers of Belgium and Holland in the cultivation of Flax, than there is of the superiority which they have already attained in the other branches of industry. Undoubtedly, if we could retain, for our own use, or even send forward to British India, the millions of gold we annually pay to our Continental neighbours for Flax, hemp, linseed, and oil-cake, we should confer a benefit on the nation at large, and on our farmers in particular, if they could be persuaded to grow it.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Fibre Plants of India, Africa, and Our Colonies (Classic Reprint) (James Hill Dickson)