FLAX INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 145, 16 December 1927, Page 4

FLAX INDUSTRY

ARGENTINE METHODS

OBJECT LESSON

ENORMOUS YIELDS

It seems strange indeed that though Slew Zealand is the natural habitat of JPhcmnium tenax, the Now Zealand flaxplant, and flaxmilling is the oldest industry in the Dominion with the possible exception of whaling, the- credit snust belong to a foreign country for being first in the field to actually de-. )nonstrate on a commercial scale the /enormously increseed yields under proJper scientific methods of planting and cutting obtainable from'this; the greatjest yielder o£ all fibre plants, a plant fwhich even in itsrwild state gives a percentage of valuable marketable fibre many times that of any other known fibre plant, even when under systematic planting and intense cultivation, states a writer in the "Hawkes Bay Herald." It is true that during the past few Jyears experiments .carried out, in 'the Dominion and much valuable inform*-' jtion supplied by the New Zealand Agrienltural Department have been responsible for arousing widespread interest in *he new methods, and the fact that flaxplaifting companies of a' total capital appro iptaating £1,000,000 have during ;the .past. two years been formed In New Zealand, is sufficient indication that New Zealand, Australian, and British investors are beginning .to realise the .exceptional-opportunity of lucrative inyestment in the industry. Still the Sact remains that owing to the young plantations in the Dominion not having yet reached maturity, we must turn to the Argentine for actual results obtain-] led under the new scientific methods. At a recent rheteing held in Auckland I of those: interested in the flax industry, Mr. W. Petrie, Chief Hemp Grader, stated: "With sound judgment tho industry may be expected to offer considerable scope in-the near future for investment both of local and other capi^ tal'... and there is good reason to think that under proper methods of cultivation it would produce an. annual- value of milled product per acre of flax, a figure' so high as.to be almost incredible lad not the statistical data-been careluHy examined."

Mr. Petrie's statement is borne out to the fullest extent in a long and most interesting letter just received from the Argentine Ministry of-Agriculture, iv *ep,ly to information sought as to the actual yields of green leaf arid* fibre now being -obtained'• there under the pew methods. ,-; , ABGENiriNE 'YIELDS. .' -. Detaiis are given which show;-th&t.at jthe fourth year after planting a yield of green-leaf of from 28 t0:32 tons per acr,e can be relied upon producing over 5 tons of dry fibre per acre; that is, assuming the plantations consist of the bejjter fibre producing -varieties': and that in the.successive cuttings this output will be progressively greater as the clumps "stool" out and the plantations reach maturity. -' In' further'ini'or^natipn, supplied by the -Ministry, it as Stated that at the eighth to ninth, year after planting of tie subdivided root platfts,-or two years later-if seedling "plants are nsed, when the planta-- • tions are at full maturity the yield of gre.en leaf is 48 tons per acre per animmi" and"-Btates' that;it is safe to calculate that this is. the normal annual production of green leaf as from that -jdatet— ..-_^ i _ „,■„, , ■_..,__;: 1 .,. _^_ .'. '.'*? cffi**?tifflafe's;''by "our'"New ZealandDepartment of Agriculture of "the leaf FfL^Ji^lU&viJM* Dominion planon 20 to 30 tons per annum under suitable soil conditions and proper planting methods, and as this estimate has been accepted by many of the. planting companies in conjunction with an estimate of 7} tons of green 1 leaf to produce one ton of fibre, that is to say a fibre -content for the greqn.Jeaf of 14 per .cunt, as against 15 to,l7.per cent, boing obtained from the^etter. varieties in -the Argentine,-/plakt^tioiis, ifr would" 1 appear that the,iDomlnib.n,;estima;tes are "»bund and conservative, and.wclfNvithin ''.the mark. ,-:■ ./' > ;i "*■'■■

SCIENTIFIC METHODSi The significance 1 of tho increased fields under more scientific methods must be apparent; to all when it is remembered that under the hitherto existing methods of cutting 'and milling the Vild leaf in New Zealand-the average annual yield of leaf pej-adre has not exceeded about 7 to 9 Itquk, producing | approximately only one ton iof dry fibre,' . and yet, notwithstanding that' according .to statistics^ quoted ;by.' Mr. Petrie', of the New Zealand Agricultural-Depart-ment, at the present time the industry •upports one family to every 35 acres of milled flax. lii considering the re- • ;Bults from the Argentine, plantations it I .is;interesting to note that they accord i largely with the figures quoted by Dr. Goulding, chief fibre: expert at the Im-1 perial InstitirtdJ.with regardto tlio.a'vor;ago annual yields obtained from our ■New Zealand flax under cultivation, namely 45 to -.55 tons per acre, with a . fibre yield of from sto 7 tons.per acre. When tho ■"'•astonishingly' l vigorous •growth of our flax plant under suitable : conditions is taken into account there . need be no great wonderment at such a leaf yield as- the Jess vigorous- fibre ■plants such as sisal and Mauritius-hemp •throw annual leaf yields of-from 40: to .45 tons per acrp per..annum,,the.great! difference in the economical aspect' of i the plants being that our New Zealand nax contains from 5 to 7 tons as much extractable and marketable fibro as the next highest fibre producing plant used for-coinmercial purposes. It was in 1895 or thereabouts that the mrst root of Phormium Tenax was introduced into the Argentine, and small plantations have rapidly grown to ones containing million's of plants. There is no reason why New Zealand should -not follow suit ,and.,,m.ultiply many, timesover her present annual output ,of 20,000. tons of fibre described by. Mr.'.Petrie, the New Zealand chief hemp grader, as only a flea-bite "on the world's markets for hard fibres, which is, includw Zealand. hemp, approximately 400,000 tons.": .

GOOD SOIL ESSENTIAL. ■ In New Zealand the work of pioneers and the valuable publicity given by the iNew Zealand Department of Agriculture to enlighten the public as to the great future.be/ore the industry, is beginning to bear' fruit, but it has not i been accomplished without much iinwar- ! jantable prejudice and scepticism even <m the' part of some of the old millers. ; The last sheds of such scepticism wili ;now be removed by the pubication of ;the Argentine results so that in the near future the Dominion; may not only have .'retained her birthright as the largest :producer of her native Phormium Ten-: !ax fibre but will also have established ;l»er3orf as pre-eminent as regards the jtrea in plantations.

It has been proved now beyond any spossibility of- doubt that under proper "conditions tHC net Tetumper acre will that per acre from dairying jnany times over. v " :; But it is necessary to emphasise that ifeuch yields that are being obtained in !tte argentine off delta county will jionly be obtainable off similarly rich iands such as our best alluvial and river ..flat areas and disappointment can only ■occur where such returns are looked for '■■from our deep peat areas, where past '/experience has proved that much time piid money must be spent before same '••■- fe§ toOßghij.-tq gu c b,. a condition as