Plain directions for practical farmers on flax culture

Contents

INTRODUCTORY

SOIL .....

PREPARATION OF SOIL AND WEEDING

Index

Bogs— riax has been gro-vra in Bogs • i

Chemistry in relation to Agricultoe .

English Soils less suitable than Irish for Elax Crops .

Eood is not reduced by Elax Culture .

Elax Crop, of 1863, in tons . , • ■

“ Gazette, Irish Earmers” . ■ •

Loam the best Soil for Elax . ■ • ■

Manm-e— Elax Manure as good as Guanoes

Profit the grand principle advocated in favor of Elax Cultur

Pulverising the Soil . ■ ■ • '

Pulling, when to do it .

Pools for Steeping . . . • •

Eotation ..••••

Shoves ought to be economised for manure Soils of Ireland largely suitable for Elax Crops Soils — according to Sir R., Kane’s Analyses Soils — ^Preparation of .

Seeds— the kind to be so-wn . . . •

Seeds — quantities per acre . • • •

Scutching Mills . . . . •

Weir’s (Mr.) Remarks on Elax Culture

Page.

. 11 . 15

. 10

. 5

. 7

. 27 . 11 . 18 . 3

. 19 . 29 . 31 . 17

. 4

. 9

. 13 . 17 . 22

38 . 23

INDUSTRY IN IRELAND.

A TREATISE

OJf THE

WILLIAM GLENNY CRORY,

AUTHOli OF “ THE COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF IRELAND’S INDDSTRIAL RESOURCES; SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF “THE DUBLIN ETENING MAIL.”

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.

EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES.

DUBLIN: McGLASHAN AND GILL.

186 . 5 .

TO

THE

ENLIGHTENED AND MUNIFICENT

PATRON OF IRISH PROSRESS,

THIS TREATISE

IS,

BY SPECIAL PERMISSION,

■ BY

THE AUTHOR.

Preface

The development of Irish resources and the progress of Irish manufactures constitute a subject not possessed, in one sense, of the charm of novelty. These phrases have indeed been so familiar that a new writer is naturally apprehensive of being mistaken, and of seeing his book put aside with a shrug or a sneer. Irish manufacture movements, unfortunately, have proceeded upon false principles, and have failed for that reason ; and were the following pages merely devoted to the old rhapsodies upon this theme, they would deserve to perish. At the start, however, the author wishes distinctly to state that he is connected with no “movement” of any kind, intended to force any Irish manufacture, or Irish resource, into a factitious prominence, but has felt it incumbent upon him to put befoie the public, in this form, his experience of many years upon Irish manufacturing capabilities, and the profit which they offer to Irish and English capitalists. He has striven to look at the matters that have come before him in a purely business light, and disavows all unmercantile enthusiasm. Having resided for a long period in England, and being familiar with the modes of thought of moneyed men on both sides of the Channel, he flatters himself that he never forgets the spirit which must prevail in all practical enterprises, if they are to be successful. Having taken up a position of this kind, the author may probably be allowed further to say that his book is, nevertheless.

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a novelty, in being literally the first attempt which has been made in a momentous manufacturing crisis, to point out, in detail, where Irish resources lie, the conditions that affect each description of them, and the prospects of return, in special places and departments, for the investment of money. The writer is, of course, not insensible to the noble efforts of those who have preceded him in this walk, with a special title to interest the public, and, in particular, need hardly mention Sir Robert Kane’s book ; but he claims to have the peculiarity of fastening the attention of the practical men of the empire upon Ireland as a field for enterprise, at an epoch which, in his mind, is emphatically her “ opportunity,” and one that, if neglected, may not speedily recur. The convulsion we witness in Lancashire by the “ cotton crisis,” which, in the opinion of the most far-seeing, will not subside with the cessation of the war, has established the imperative necessity for cheaper production and lesser freightage, and the writer has undertaken to prove that these objects can only be attained by an immediate and extensive utilization of the water-powers of Ireland. He has also shown that no difficulty of obtaining skilled factory hands, familiar with Irish manners, and prepared for a contented residence in this country, presents an obstacle to the working of Irish mills, since late experience in Lancashire has elicited the fact (well known before to all practical men) tbat a large number of the operatives are Irish, and of Irish extraction, to whom nothing would be more congenial than a return, under comfortable circumstances, to their native land. An identical facility exists, moreover, for obtaining skilled hands to work in Ireland, in the manufacture of hardware, cutlery, machine-making, china, glass, and chemicals, which make up the cargoes “ outwards” of ships trading in cottons and foreign and colonial produce.

* The author also devotes considerable space to the topic of flax cultivation, for which Irish soils and the Irish climate are specially fitted. He was the advocate of a vastly increased growth of this plant in the Dublin Evening Mail (the journal in which his letters first appeared), at a time when the public had not yet begun to recognise the importance of the occasion. Since then he has had the satisfaction of finding his views gaining ground with thoughtful men ; and, while he would guard himself against helping to create a pernicious flax mania, he is convinced that when flax-growing and flax-spinning in Ireland have attained their legitimate position, the opportunity for cotton-manufacturing in this country will also be more clearly apparent, and more valuable.

The beneficent social effects which would infallibly result from any general introduction of manufactures into Ireland— the breaking down of prejudices, the uniting of classes, the propagation of sounder principles, and the relieving of agriculture from the strain of unemployed labour— would be an achievement so incalculably valuable to the State and the People, that the philosopher, the philanthropist, and the statesman must equally feel interested in the discussion of the subject, when pursued in no visionary^ way, and associated with no declamation, but treated as a serious matter of figures

and of facts. _

The author, therefore, encouraged by knowing that the

perusal of his letters as they appeared daily m the public press, has already produced fruit, publishes them in a collected form, trusting that they will be found in this shape more suggestive, more consistent as a whole, and more likely to bring about the desired result — the investment of capital in enterprise in Ireland, at a period when the manufacturerprinces, discerning difiiculties ahead as well as actually existing, are casting about them for fresh instruments and new fields of effort.

I BELIEVE the only reason I have for writing an intiocluction to the following pages is a sufficient one, as, without some explanations which I could not otherwise give, my book might be misunderstood. My desire is merety to bring the neglected resources of this country most prominently under the notice of my fellow-countrymen at home, to introduce them more fully to the British public, and to tell Irishmen who have made money in foreign lands, or those who hope to return to their native country, that there is a field for the investment of capital and the employment of labour in Ireland, obviously not to be excelled, and probably not to be equalled elsewhere on the globe. I have endeavoured, in the discharge of a duty so onerous, and in doing a work so formidable, to treat every material noticed in the following treatise, so as to leave the impression on my readers’ minds that I only mention their existence, and hint at some points of their worth, but do not at all even attempt to describe minutely, or to value fully, resources in whose description volumes might be filled, and to express the full value of which I do not know of sufficient figures. I have also dealt with each of these as if it were a witness by whose testimony capitalists, manufacturers, and merchants would be guided in the investment of money, the exercise of talent and industry, and the operations of commerce; but I trust geologists, mineralogists, and others more competent than I am to appraise the value of Ireland’s industrial wealth, may be induced to test the accuracy of my statements by a cross-examination of these witnesses in the cause of Ireland’s improvement. I have written with the knowledge cleai’ly before my mind that my subject is at once unpopular and important. I have not oveidooked the probability that the pages I now submit to public notice may be read by persons in this country who make it their business, whenever an effort is made to bring the subject of Ireland’s resources of industry before the people, to offer objections to the outlay of money in their development, which is mostly done by recalling the failure of some ill-advised or badly-managed experiment, or by exaggerating the few slight difSeulties which must naturally present themselves in the earlier stages of Ireland’s progress in manufactures, as a consequence of England’s having already gained a position in like undertakings. I have, therefore, given the prominence to such facts as I thought would enable any one desirous to deal fairly with the subject, to meet such fallacious notions as are founded on ignorance, but which, because of being often propagated by persons supposed to be well-informed, have, for so far, paralysed the efforts of some, and deterred or alarmed others, — whilst they were also no less powerful in leading strangers astray than in stopping industrial efforts at home.

I have also the hope that my book may be perused by many out of this country, amongst whom, doubtless, there will be some who may look with jealousy at the position I assume for Ireland in manufactures, to whom I trust I have, in the small space at my disposal, offered sufficient reasons for regarding Ireland’s elevation to the first rank in Europe as a commercial country the desideratum of the further expansion in British commerce. On the development, therefore, of Ireland’s resources depend issues which render the doing so immediately much less a national than an Imperial question.

( xi )

With a view to enable my readers to understand more easily some ideas which are purposely implied, but not pointedly stated, I take leave to announce that I have written with a desire' to accelerate a general tendency which I observe with inexpressible pleasure in all the movements of commerce, namely, that all mercantile operations, to be successful, must he guided by enlightened minds, and conducted under the most rigid adherence to the self-same principles of generosity and benevolence as are expected in other walks of life. Besides, recent events in these and other countries show that before they can he profitable, the interchanges of commodities, and the financial operations of merchant with merchant, or of the merchants of one country with those of another, must be guided by laws as carefully defined as those necessary in the laboratory of the chemist, or the workshop of the mechanic.

I have written, moreover, believing the time is not far distant when all will admit it to be as necessary to have a special department in our schools and colleges for the teaching of the science of commerce, and the proper preparation of merchants for their profession, as it is now to make provision for the proper qualification of Christian teachers, lawyers, surgeons, doctors, or those of any other profession. Obviously, more of the interests of a country and the progress of civilization, in the widest and highest sense of these terms, depends on the mode of conducting commercial operations than can possibly attach to the manner in which persons in any other position of life discharge their professonal duties. Uneducated merchants can have no place in the future of commerce, nor can avarice any longer be safely taken as a guide in getting rich, much less can the disregard of any material or discovery wherever to be had, or from wheresoever emanating, be longer tolerated; but, on the contrary, mercantile operations, to be successful, must be governed by moral rectitude, and not as now, to a large extent, by an unenlightened eagerness of gain. I saw whilst com-

( xii )

posing matter for these pages (what I see now more than ever) the necessity of casting off the repulsive clictums of (so-called) political economists, whose crude notions about supply and demand, and cold heartlessness in reference to the relations of capital and labour, have begun to bear such bitter fruits as the “ cotton crisis ” in England, by which half a million of people ■would have been reduced to starvation these last two years but for the benevolence of the public in all parts of the world so nobly manifested, and in which Ireland has had an honorable share ; as also in the discouragement of industry in Ireland, by which probably a whole million have been kept in deep privation these last ten years, and who wmuld have been “ swept off” but for aid afforded time after time, in which England always cordially joined.

Commercial men must reject all sentiments unsupported by sound reasoning, and avoid every policy incompatible with the constant observance in the strictest manner of the precepts w'hich demand from man to man the offices of brotherhood, and the expressions of love. But I must not fail to take advantage of this opportunity of expressing indebtedness to the kindness of those who gave me information, or otherwise aided me W'hilst the substance of my work was passing through the columns of the “ Dublin Evening Maiy’ or under revision for publication in a book form. For several suggestions, I am indebted to the Rev. R. B. Kidd, LL.B., Belfast; as also for proposals of further assistance, which I trust I may have the pleasure of availing myself of in a future edition. I have also to acknowledge valuable information on flax and cotton manufacture received from P. Macauley, Esq., J.P., Cleggan, Co. Galway; and James Harden, Esq., Chapelizod ; and in regard to machinery used in flax mills I received several valuable facts from J. B. Mitchell, Esq., engineer, Dublin. The patentee of that invention to wdrich I refer in several places (James S. M'Ardle, Esq.), not only gave me valuable assistance in re-

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ference to seaweeds, but has furnished me with facts on flax manure, which are too valuable to remain unknown, and which I hope to use in some way in fulfilment of Mr. M‘/krdle’s desire for the good of the people of this country. From John Kelly, Esq., of the Museum of Irish Industry, I also got much guidance in the treatment of the subject of stones and marbles. To none, however, am I more indebted than to the proprietors of the “ Dublin Evening Mail,” and very especially also to James Scott, Esq., well known in connection with that journal and the “Warder,” to whose kindness I am under obligation for incalculably valuable assistance, well-timed suggestions, and mueh encouragement in my labours on the work for which, with all its defects, I now ask the consideration of aU who are interested in commerce, or who desire to see Ireland fill the nlaee in fact, for which she is fitted by nature.

Dublin, ls« January, 186:3.

CONTENTS.

Chap.

I. Introductory

Page

II. Cotton Manufactures — Differential Profits

III. The Cotton Manufactures — Difiterential Profits (Continued)

... 12

IV. Linen Manufactures and Flax Culture ...

... 17

V. Linen Manufacture and Flax Culture (Continued)

...

... 21

VI. Freights Inwards and Outwards

... 25

VII. Woollen Manufactures

VIII. Silk, Lace, and other Irish Manufactures

... 35

IX. Fisheries — Farms— Marine Plants

... 40

X. Farms and Farmers

... 46

XI. Marine Plants ...

... 61

XII. Tramways

XIII. Peat Bogs

...

XIV. Back Freights

XV. Glass, Earthenware, and Iron

...

... 73

XVI. Joint-Stock Companies

... 78

XVII. Shipbuilding ... ,

... 81

XVIII. Cotton, Flax, and Alva Marina

...

... 87

XIX. Flax-Fields, Factories, and Fallacies

... 93

XX. Facts, Fuel, and Factory Operatives

XXI. Building Materials and Marble

... 102

( xvi )

Cliap. . Page

XXII. The Relative Commercial Positions of England and Ireland in 1802 108 XXIII. Banking — Life and Fire Assurance ... ... ... ... 112

Appendix

Flax Culture —England Compared with Ireland ... ... ... ... 127

Fisheries ... ... 136

Irish Freehold Land Company .. ... ... ... ... ... 138

Ireland’s Opportunity ... ... 143

Hindrances in the way of Progress ... ... ... ... ... 147

Farming and Manufactures 155

A TREATISE,

OHAPTEE I.

INTEODUCTOEY.

Eos olrparlv been the theme of so many speeches and any new light ; out tnis close examination of the nei country. A very cursory <

;glected resources of industry in the consideration of the latent materiel for manufactures and commerce will, probably, convince those

most doubtful of Ireland’s capabilities that, according to all precedent in cases of like resources for the employment of labour and the investment of capital, she may be placed first on the list

for immigrants. „ , , c

In dealing with this subject, we will set forth the manufacturing capabilities of the country in detail. We shall describe their character, and point out their locality, so that capitalists may know to what points their inquiry ought to be directed.

In no aspect does the importance of a fair exposition of Ireland’s industrial capabilities seem so important as m its relation to emigration. Hitherto the people of Ireland, and especially those of the midland and south-western parts, have rushed to every country on the globe, according to their means, in search of employment, materials for which, better than they can find anywhere else, are neglected at home. This emigra- . tion, how^ever, though fraught with many bad consequences, was not wholly an evil. Yet such is the point it has already

B

I’eached, and such are the concomitants of its operation, that to allow it to go further would be most culpable negligence, whilst to excite or encourage it is assuredly, to inflict the greatest possible injury upon the interests of both British and Irish commerce.

That division of families, consequent on emigration in the past, may not only lead to some further emigration, but may also become the occasion of many returning to this country. This will be the more or less visible according as the country improves more or less rapidly. We are satisfied that to enlighten the minds of people everywhere on the subject of this country’s resources, would become the occasion of bringing thousands of remigrants and hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling back into Ireland.

We do not expect that opinion should be considered evidence in this case. The only testimony we attempt to bear is such as facts, too plainly fixed before common observation to be contradicted, will speak. We find these rise up before the inquirer after manufacturing capabilities in this country in the following order, in which order also they will be treated in these pages.

Firstly, water-power, cheap rents for mill-sites, comparatively cheap and very abundant labour, suitable for cotton manufactures and woollen manufaetures, both of which might be pursued with the advantage of that division of labour, by which operations in all departments are I’educed to a minimum cost. Also, those engaged in the linen trade might avail themselves of the cheapness of motive-power, and the superiority of water-power to steam-power in the spinning, but especially the weaving of linens. Bleaching may be done as well in Mayo, Clare, or Galway, as in Down or Antrim.

But we do not ask anyone to consider the claims of Ireland’s resources of industry merely because their development would benefit Irish people, but rather expect their development to take place because it would benefit those who engage it. We expect people from England and Scotland to go to Connaught and Munster, and people from Ulster to go westwards, whei’e. obviously this development must begin, if begun aright, simply because any given sum of money laid out in the trades named above would be so productive of profit as to form a sufficient inducement for the most rigid economist to choose Ireland.

The question is not now, as formerly. Are there resources of industry in Ireland sufficient to support her people ? This has long ago been answered incontrovertibly in the affirmative. But it maybe asked. Do these resources exist to such an extent, are they distributed in such a manner as to make their utilization practicable at the present moment, and are these resources so valuable as to induce capitalists to turn their attention to their development for sake of differential profits likely to arise from the employment of enterprise in this new field, rather than

in the older channels of trade? _

On the single point of superior manufacturing capabilities these questions turn. The maritime advantages, the geographical position, the nearness of any part of the country to the seaboard, and of the island to the markets of the world, in combination with the differential profits to be set forth, will prove that to the West of Ireland much manufacturing enterprise from Ulster and from Great Britain may be safely transferred.

Fisheries must still be enumerated amongst neglected resources. Home markets for farm and garden produce will also be noticed in their relation to the interests of agriculture. Marine plants are also a much-neglected resource of industry.

We shall most specially notice peat bog, also glass and earthenware manufactures, the extension and value of which are highly important, especially as a means of supplying back freights for ships carrying raw cotton, wool, flax, hemp, jute, and other imports necessary in trades and manufactures.

We will also notice the existence and value of granite, marble, and other building materials. Banking will also be dealt with.

following tablcj whicli sets forth, the estimated relative cost of working cotton mills in Ireland by water-power and steam-power respectively, places the case in a form which we believe may be understood by any one, and is likely to be plain to those conversant with cotton manufactures : —

In calculating the above table, we have fixed the rent accordino- to the cost of erecting buildings in the West of I^’e^and and the cotton districts of England— say Galway and Manchester, respectively. A stone building, vvith inside brickwork, in the former, would pay an owner at six per cent, as well as outside brickwork would pay in the latter at eight per cent. _

We have been careful to keep the outlay for chimney, engine, and boilers as low as possible, whilst the sum set down lor a water-wheel is the very outside of that which would be necessary in the average of cases, even if the least eligible sites were chosen ; but eligible sites are so numerous in Connaught and Munster that none except those having the best waterfalls need be chosen, even under the most rapid extension possible, during

the next fifty years. ^ •

The Turbine water-wheel is not known yet to that extent in this country which would justify any expectation from tiie savings by its adoption in the first outlay ot money for ci eating motive power. But it is to be hoped engineers will give this class of wheel more attention.

The adoption of the latest inventions might add some few thousands to the cost of machinery, but would lead to lasting economy. It would also illustrate that great principle not yet fairly brought out in the cotton trade, namely— that the less manual, and the more machine labour, the better for all interested in the trade, especially for the operatives.

In the amount of wages put down for Ireland and England there is no attempt at fixing the average cost per day for any given class of mill, but merely the relative cost in the respective countries. This proportion is founded on a permanent basis, not to be moved, supposing Ireland to become at once as we hesitate not to say will yet be the case— as celebrated for flax-growing as India and the Southern States of North America are now for the culture of cotton.

Ireland could be made to produce profitably to the farmer seven times as much flax as is now raised, and might thereby become the means of enabling flax-spmners to expand a trade which, though it has grown much since 1851, is never likely to assume is natural proportions till Ireland’s broad acres, to the extent of one million at least per annum, are covered with flax. To raise the yield to this extent would give occasion for the introduction of at least 100 or 150 more spinning mills, whose produce would necessitate the use of power-looms in every branch. Even in case of such extension, food would be still cheaper in Ireland than in England ; for the advantage of nearness to the corn-growing and cattle-feeding States of America, and, in fact, to every country in the world whose trade is worth notice, would be greatly in favour of cheaper living in Ireland, consequently of lower wages. In fish alone there would be a , large saving ; house-rents are also cheaper. The difference in wages, being therefore founded on an abiding basis, is never likely to be disturbed by any possible changes.

The primary object of the above table is to put a fact before the public in a forcible form, namely — that cotton manufactures may be carried on in Ireland at a profit 13 and 6-lOths per cent, larger on l-3rd the whole “ turn over” of the trade than can be realized in Great Britain.

The secondary object is no less important, namely— to show capitalists, as such, that money may he invested in the cotton trade in Ireland (as will be more fully explained afterwards), so as to yield as large a profit to the manufacturer as he can make in England, after paying the capitalist a liberal percentage for the use of money.

Water-power, eligible sites for mills, as well as some buildings already erected, with land for workers’ houses and gardens, can now be had at either the ports of Limerick or Galway, or at^ easy distances by water carriage, to the number of 625 such mills, which could even be increased so as to work an equal quantity to that now employed in the United Kingdom in linen, cotton, and woollen, and in a district whose seaboard would extend from Waterford to Westport, both places and all intermediate included. It is also a fact, that in every manufacturing town in the United Kingdom, and in America (e. g., Lowell, Massachusetts), a very large number of the operatives are Irish, and most of them from Galway, Mayo, Tipperary, Koscommon’ King’s and Queen’s Counties, Limerick, Clare, and Waterford. It is also obviously true that in Connemara, and other parts of Galway, in Mayo, and in fact in several Irish counties, hundreds of hands trained in Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast, or other nlaces are now residing, most of them comparatively idle, and all of them willing to earn money, especially at what they best understand-namely, flax, or cotton spinning and weaving. Every mill employing 600 operatives would, directly and indirectly, give employment and support to at least 2,000 P«’s°ns- Besides this, the erection, fitting up, and working, would cal into profitable use at least £25,000 over and above those sums necessarily circulated indirectly in shipping, &c.

Chapter II

The table in Chapter I, was intended to set forth, in tiie simplest possible form, the outlay for rent, motive povver and wages of a moderate-sized cotton factory, as worked respectively by steam-power in England and by water-power in Ireland. But as steam-power and water-power are both suited for a cotton mill, the custom of the trade is to adopt in any given case whichever is more avaikble, the preference is, however, given to water-power, since it is not only cheaper,

but more steady and manageable.

The sum necessary to erect a mill of the size named, to put the best machinery into it, and to leave a surplus, at the same time, for working capital, may be estimated at £2o,000 to £30,000; and, consequently, the saving of £l,666 3s. 9d., shown in the table contained in the former Chapter, would be at the rate of 5 1 l-20ths per cent on the larger, and 6 7-lOths on the smaller of these sums, respectively, per annum.

In ordinary cases, the lesser of the above-mentioned sums would be amply sufficient; but the larger amount might possibly be employed advantageously in adopting the very newest inventions in machinery, and especially those by which the greatest possible amount of work could be done with the fewest possible number of unskilled labourers. In either case, however, the saving would be alike valuable and important.

But every one who is otherwise qualified for going into the cotton trade in Ireland, and would be inclined to do so for the sake of the special advantages it offers, cannot be expected to possess the whole capital necessary for so large an undertaking as M'^e have spoken of ; in which case the diffei'ential profit becomes still more valuable for practical purposes, as it is sufficient to pay for the use of money, and still to leave the ordinary profit of the manufacture intact. Even supposing the -extreme case of a manufacturer borrowing the whole of his capital at 5 per cent., he would, after paying interest, be as well off in Ireland as he would he in Great Britain with no interest to pay.