LINEN FLAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 150, 26 June 1940, Page 5

LINEN FLAX.

HOPE OF INDUSTRY.

NEW DE-SEEDING MACHINE.

INSPECTION BY EXPERTS.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, this day.

A linen flax de-seeding machine, the invention of a Blenheim farmer, Mr. C •I. Lucas, of Dillon's Point, is undergoing tests prior to an inspection this week by Mr. R. B. Tennent, Director of Primary Production, and oiher Government officers, who are to visit Blenheim in connection with the campaign to induce farmers to grow more linen flax.

Since practically all foreign supplies of linen flax have been cut off as a result of the war, the part the Dominion will have to play in its production has become of greatest importance. Consequently the success of this machine is linked closely with the future of the young industry.

Test operations are proceeding at Marshlands, near Blenheim, where the whole of the 200 tons oi linen flax from the 100 acres grown in Marlborough this year has been assembled for treatment. These crops produced magnificent samples of both fibre and seed, and as the seed is being saved to build up stocks for increased sowings in the coming season the work of Mr. Lucas' machine

is especially important. Imported I machines which have been tested have I proved unsatisfactory, but the Blenjheim invention appears to be entirely jsuccessful. It is capable of dealing I with a ton of flax per hour, extracting lone and a half to two hundredweight of iseed and employing three men, as" compared with a Belgian machine which. ;hanclled only three tons dailv and required five operators. Provided the equipment passes the official trials, it «ill be taken over by the Government. About forty machines are to be built for linen flax factories in different parts d 1