Excerpt from The Tenth Annual Report and Transactions of the Royal Society for the Promotion and Improvement of the Growth of Flax in Ireland: With an Appendix, Treasurer's Statement of Accounts, and List of Subscriptions and Donations, for the Year Ending 31st October, 1850

The frequent and sustained attempts made by your Committee to apply hand labour in the scutching of flax, in the South and West, with a view to increase the employment of the poor, have proved unsatisfactory, owing to the ineficlency of the workers, and the great expense of the operation. Your Committee have, therefore, urged on all landed pro prietors who are desirous of establishing flax culture on their estates, the absolute necessity of putting up scutching machinery, in order that their tenants' flax might be prepared in the cheapest and most effectual manner. As the impoverished state of the tenant farmers, consequent upon the repeated potato blight, and the low price of farm produce, has seriously affected the means of a large section of landed proprietors, many of the latter who are desirous of affording every facility to their tenants for the cultivation of flax, are unable to alford the outlay involved by the erection of scutching mills and steeping concerns. Your Committee have reason to believe that, if the provisions of the Land Improvement Advances Act, Of last Session, were extended, by an interpretation of the clause empower ing landlords to borrow from the treasury for the erection of farm buildings, so as to include the buildings and apparatus for steeping and scutching flax, many would at once avail themselves of this power. A representation to this efl'ect was made to Government, and the subject was brought forward in the House of Commons, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, acting on erroneous information, declined to accede to the proposal. Neverthe less, your Committee have not lost sight of the matter, and they have some hopes, next Session, of obtaining a more favourable consideration. They believe that men of business would often be found ready to undertake the steeping and scutching on a large scale, if they could rent concerns from the landlords, as has already been done in one instance, their outlay being thus confined to the floating capital required for the purchase of flex, &c., without, Obliging them to expend a large sum in plant, before commencing operations, and thus increasing their risk; and it is probable that capitalists would readily advance money on the security of the concerns. In addition to the metal rollers, introduced a few years since, which have been found by far the best for bruising the flax stems and preparing them for being steeped, a new machine, invented by a Belgian, to which reference was made in last year's report, has since been improved, and, from the trials made in some concerns where it has been employed, promises to be a valuable implement, both as to economy and efliciency. As it does away with the necessity Of employing trained scutchers at high wages, and can be worked by women or lads, it efl'ects an immense saving in wages, while, from the quantity of work which it will turn out, it promises to clean flax at less cost than anything hitherto tried.

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