On the cultivation of flax upon Captain Dixon's Estate of Skelton Castle, on the River Isis, Tasmania

The cultivation of flax on the farm of Skelton Castle has been prosecuted for the last five years, and in every season good crops have been obtained.
The climate has been found eminently adapted to its growth, and to the after-processes of steeping and grassing.
During the first four years it was tried on small portions of land; the breaking and scutching, then effected by hand labour,alone absorbing the value of the flax raised, and rendering its cultivation unprofitable. In 1849 a scutching machine was put up, which, together with other appliances to lessen the amount of manual labour and the benefit of increased experience, occasioned from that year a greater breadth of land to be sown.