CORRESPONDENCE. PREPARATION OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 3999, 16 June 1870, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE. PREPARATION OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

To the Editor of tho Daily Southijut Cross. Sir,— The importance: attending the prospecta of flax in this country as a staple export will, I hope, warrant my asking you ' to insert the following- suggestions. Prom considerable- research"! find'that no flax fibre (except New Zealand) is ever sent into the market that has not undergone, in some form or other, the process of retting, . whatever machinery the plants may have been previously submitted to for crushing, &c. Of the 700,000 or 800,000 tons imported annually from Eussia, Belgium, France, Egypt, Ireland, &c, the greater part is simply retted in lakes, pools, and rivers; the rest in. extensive retteries under a patent process, explained below : The process' of retting is that of decomposition of the vegetable substances 'attached to the fibre by the action of fermentation, and therefore reCJ 1 wires most careful watchi .q during the last da>' °} the steeping, because if the action be kept up too long the strength of the fibre is impaired, while if continued too short a time the fibre will not scutch clean—the^ ordinary test being when the vegetable impurities rub off easily with the finger-nail. The most famous retting river is the Lys, rising in the N"orth of France, to which, from the peculiar properties of the water, flax is sent in large quantities to be steeped. There, the fibre is laid in large wooden crates 12ft. long by Bftr broad and 3ft. deep, and sunk just below the water's surface, the time of steeping varying" from ten days upwards, according to the temperature. Even a few hours' steeping too much or too little makes a difference of £10 a ton in the value of the fibre, it Is theu dried, and afterwards scutches beautifully clean, and of a good colour. For capitalists, the retting aa at present carried on in the largest retteries in Europe under a patent process is recommended as more expeditious, and can be done an aa extensive seale — the time only occttpying 39 , hours. The fibre is laid in stone^.twifik, or i wooden tanks, in water kept aif a I'emperature of 80" by means of steam pipes under a false bottom ; and water pipes ' which keep the water constantly renewed, the dirty water going off by the overflow. After retting 30 hours, the impurities are expressed bj two powerful screws placed above the tanks, during which rinsing the water is raised to 150'; then the water is drawn off, and the fibre pressed dry by the screws at a 200-ton pressure, then thoroughly dried and. scutched. The fibre should also be scutched with a brush scutcher after the beating scutcher. I have lsft plans of two patents of this principle, at present used — one near Lille, France, and the other near Belfast — at Mr. Thomas Macffarlane's, one of the Flax Commissioners, for inspection. Those .who cannot afford this outlay should ret the flax in rivers, creeks, or pools, placing it in crates as done in the river Lys. Immediately after passing through Price's machine our fibre may not require so long sleeping; probably, especially in summer, but experiments must test that. In Europe the retting is only done during the summer months, except in the patent retteries. Some may say our flax has no resemblance to the European, but after first applying a mechanism having the necessary difference of a stripping action to the former, and a crushing action to the latter, the fibre of each appears to require identical treatment, as to both is attached a quantity of vegetable substance common to all cellulose plants, and both contain gum, which it is necessary to get rid of previous to scutching. We may profit by the result of a century's experimentalising in Europe, which is, that retting by fermentation is the only practical method, as various ingenious mechanical processes, to obviate the necessity of retting, have been tried, and several patented ; also, every known chemical solvent has been attempted, and boiling the fibre with and without chemicals ; but all have been abandoned as unsuccessful. How, then, can we expect our flax fibre, after merely undergoing a crude mechanical process, to compete in the market with flax that has been properly dressed? — aa even for rope or canvas, if the fibre be not free from vegetable impurities, they putrify after manufacture, which the rope- and sailmakers have found out, and then decry what is the finest fibre in the world, and which should be an export of two million and upwards to this country, but which will be nil if dressed and shipped as heretofore. — I am, &c, Pro Bono.