Mechanisation of linen flax harvest

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32553, 12 March 1971, Page 13

Mechanisation of linen flax harvest

Mr J. W. Hadfield, who will soon be 84 years old and who in earlier years made a notable contribution to New Zealand agriculture, particularly in the fields of seed certification and in the establishment and development of the linen flax industry, was taken to Geraldine this week, where there is still a linen flax factory, to see developments in the mechanisation of the handling of the crop which have been introduced recently.

During World War II Mr Hadfield was director of linen flax development and production and after the war when the Linen Flax Corporation was set up to take over the industry he was general manager until 1948 and subsequently he continued his association with the industry as grader of flax until 1961 and as a director of the corporation until 1963. The chairman of the board of the corporation, Mr P. L. Harland, and a former general manager of the corporation after Mr Hadfield and also a current director of the corporation, Mr H. D. McCrostie, accompanied Mr Hadfield on the visit to Geraldine where they were also met by two directors of the corporation, Messrs W. C, Stafford and R. W. L. Beattie, the factory manager, Mr R. E. C. Shaw, and the corporation secretary, Mr R. B. Horsburgh. The trip down was made in a modem version of the Model T Ford, the first vehicle that Mr Hadfield owned when he was in charge of the Moa seed farm at Ettrick in Central Otago, shortly after World War I, when it was used in the farm training of former servicemen. Ulis year the flax crop in the Geraldine district covers about 500 acres and Mr Shaw describes the average yield at about three tons to the acre as putting it in the category of better than average. This week 1000 tons of the new season’s crop was already in stack at the factory having been brought in on wooden pallets carrying a little more than a ton of sheaves and then put into stacks of about 275 to 300 tons, in accordance with the requirements of the insurance authorities. It was explained that

with the palletisation of the crop on the farm it was now possible for three men at the factory to stack more flax (on pallets) than could be handled previously by 18 men and odd feeders as well when the crop came in in sheaf form on the same trailers that are now being used to carry the pallets. And whereas the average time to unload a trailer formerly was about an hour, and up to an hour and a half might be taken as the stacks got higher, now with fork lifts moving the pallets the time taken to free a trailer is only about five minutes. There has been some experimentation into the best form that the stacks of pallets should take and the system that was favoured this week is one in which the stack comprises sets of two layers of four pallets with a third layer of three on top, with the centre layer of four having no pallets under them and only being roped together. This is a measure to save pallets. The stacks are finally covered with canvas sheets or a lighter synthetic Japanese material which has been found particularly suitable for use on stacks of pallets in the farm paddock, in that it is light to handle and because it tends to float on the stack letting in air to help dry out the flax. A demonstration was also given of the operation of a pallet conveyor, which is used to carry the pallet on the farm while it is being loaded. Unloading of the pallet with sheaves on it is achieved by a system of “screwing” up the front of the conveyor until the rear eud touches the ground and the conveyor can then be pulled away from its load. Later the party went to

watch one of the new $6500 Belgian self-propelled pullers, of which the corporation has three, at work on a fine 17-acres crop which Mr S. R. Brodie has grown on leased land at Pleasant Valley. Later this versatile machine was seen picking up and tieing flax put out for drying. Nearby it was pointed out that early removal of the crop from a paddock had facilitated resowing of the area and on another property where the palleted flax is now lying safely covered waiting removal to the factory Mr Beattie said that the pallets were located off the paddock leaving it free for the next operation and in this case the crop had been off the paddock in only five days. The group also visited the farm of Mr P. Gueiren at Hilton where there is 30 tons of flax harvested off 12 acres in two stacks, also off the harvest paddock.

Mr Beattie said that there had been a favourable reaction from growers to the new system and Mr Shaw added that labour required on the farm to handle the crop had now been reduced from five men to three.

pay out to growers. He commented ‘wonderful’ when his attention was drawn to the fact that one fibre sample represented a fibre content of 16.85 per cent. He recalled later that in the early days of flax growing fibre content had been as low as three to four per cent

As a former grader of flax Mr Hadfield was asked about how flax quality was assessed. He replied that if the fibre felt like a girl’s hair then it was of a high grade and perhaps grade C, whereas if it felt like the hairs of a horse’s tail if was of a lower grade—grade A or AA.

The sheen of the fibre was also important and its ability to retain the impression of the fingers when drawn over them. It was also tested for strength and if a lot of loose fibres could be drawn out then there would be a high "hackle” loss. After his visit to Geraldine Mr Hadfield said in his opinion that recent developments in the production and utilisation of linen flax constituted a major break-through in the economy of the industry. The importation of modem machinery, the saving of labour by palleting the straw after harvest, and the promising utilisation of the flax fibre in

At the factory Mr Hadfield also inspected fibre Which has been processed to determine fibre content and quality for assessing the

combination with wool and cotton had, in his view, created an entirely different outlook for the economic future for linen flax in New Zealand. Mr Hadfield first came into contact with flax growing when he became head of the agronomy division of the Plant Research Bureau at Lincoln in 1936. The division was the forerunner of the present Crop Research Division. Then one of his responsibilities was the study of new crops and linen flax was among them. Flax trials were also grown through the South Island and he recalled this week that be had a retting tank built at the division.

help meet Britain’s wartime needs. In 1940 Britain asked New Zealand to grow 15,000 acres of flax and soon afterwards, before the first crop was harvested, with European supplies cut off, the appeal came from England for New Zealand to produce to her uttermost capacity.

Impetus was given to the studies when about 1938 F. R. Callaghan, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Wright, a scientific liaison officer in London, decided that there was likely to be a shortage of flax. About that time Russia prohibited the export of flax.

Mr Hadfield was on a visit to Britain and the Continent when war broke out and while there was able to secure machinery for a pilot processing plant that served as a model for New Zealand engineers to build the processing plant that was subsequently needed in this country to

Mr Hadfield recalls that people were very cooperative in these circumstances. Much of the equipment for the 17 factories, which were at one time operating, was built by the Railways Department and the Christchurch firm of Andrews and Beaven offered to produce the pullers needed to harvest the crop at cost. Mr Hadfield remembered this week how a representative of that firm noticed that the European-type puller they had as a model threw in the opposite direction to the binders used in this country and had consequently to be built the other way round for local conditions.

In the accompanying photograph a pallet of flax is being lifted on to a stack at the factory. Watching, from left, are Messrs McCrostie, Stafford, Beattie, Shaw, Hadfield and Harland.