LINEN FLAX

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 6

LINEN FLAX

DOMINION EFFORT

FIBRE FOR BRITAIN

EXCELLENT RESULTS

Complete co-operation on the part of several 'Government Departments and scores of farmers in the South Island has produced excellent results in the growing of the Domin- j ion's first linen flax crop, so that! valuable fibre may be made available j to Britain to replace the European j supplies now cut off. Last winter farmers in Marlborough, Canterbury. Otago, and Southland were asked-roi prepare ground for a most ambitious! undertakingT-the growing of 14,0001 acres of linen flax, a crop that was not known to the , majority of the farmers. A guarantee to cover j working costs was given by the Gov-j eminent, and the farmers responded so well that over 13.000 acres were sown and the crop is now being harvested, i The production of over 13,000 acres of linen flax from'a stanamg start'is probably the greatest agricultural effort ever undertaken in New Zealand, and" it has been paralleled by an industrial effort of similar magnitude. Machines for pulling, de-seeding, and scutching, and factories for the most up-to-date retting of the crop have been produced by Dominion manufacturers while the crop has been growing. This work could not have been done without the complete co-opera-tion of the Departments of Industries and Commerce, Agriculture, Scientific and industrial Research, the Treasury, and the farmers who undertook the growing. , The production has been controlled by a Linen Flax Committee set up by the Departments concerned. The committee consists of Messrs. F. W. Johnson (chairman, Industries and Commerce), R. B. Tennent (Agriculture), F. Callaghan (Scientific Research), and E. L. Greensmith -(Treasury). The members of the committee give great credit to the farmers for their ready co-operation, and the farmers probably praise the committee and the Departments concerned for the way arrangements were made. EXPERTS FROM* ABROAD. The work of processing the fibre extracted from the crop will be supervised by a Belgian expert, M. Bevernage, who will work under the Director of Linen Flax Development. All of the fibre will be purchased by Britain, and the British Government's grader, Mr. Glasgow, is already in New Zealand to attend to the grading. Mr. Glasgow will probably train some New Zealanders in the important work of grading while he is in the Dominion. Five hundred tons of seed were imported for sowing last spring and i eleven districts were selected for growing. These districts were arranged so that the crops would be within a fif-teen-mile radius of a factory. The Government erected ten factories, the eleventh being supplied by a private company. Good results were secured by the growers, the crops in Marlborough, South Canterbury, Otago, and Southland being excellent. Results were not so good in the Rangiora and Leeston districts in North Canterbury. It is still too early to do more than estimate the results, as the crops are now in process of harvesting, but the total weight of fibre produced should be close to the 3000 tons £timed at. The crops have given a new appearance to the countryside, as each plant produces beautiful blue flowers. The seed is allowed to form before harvesting and ripens in the stook before the crop is stacked. It is expected that Marlborough alone will produce more than enough seed for sowing a larger crop next spring, and the bala-nce of the seed will be exported or processed for linseed oil. After the oil is extracted the residue makes a valuable stock food. HARVESTING THE CROP/ j At a distance ripening linen flax looks like a crop of oats or wheat, but it cannot be harvested in the same j way, as the fibre runs into the roots | and the full length of the plant is re- j quired to give a good staple. Harvest- J ing such an enormous crop »by hand is j plainly impossible and as mechanical harvesters were not available and could not be imported they had to be manufactured in New Zealand. Fortunately the Government had a full set of implements. These implements have been copied, and, apart from some initial difficulties, are operating satisfactorily. The mechanical puller is smaller than a reaper and binder but resembles that implement in part. The growing crop 4 is "gathered" by metal fingers in j front of the machine, so that a strip j of crop is brought between two belts which have their outer surfaces pressed together by the proximity of the pulleys carrying them. The belts grip the plants and pull them from the ground as the puller moves forward. As the plants are pulled they are carried upwards by the belts and are deposited on a platform to be shuffled into the binding apparatus, which is the same as on a reaper and binder. The tied sheaf is thrown out to be picked up and stooked in the ordinary way. Later they are forked on to lorries to be carted away and stacked. j Originally it was intended to stack i the crops from the different areas : around the factories, but fire risk has ] led to arrangements for slacking on j; the farms for cartage to the factories i as required. The crop will keep the < eleven factories working throughout the year and this fact has given an- , other State Department an interest in , flax growing. The Housing Construe- ] tion Department has already been ( asked to provide houses for workers 1 near some of the factories. ■ , FACTORI PROCESSES. < The fibre is taken from the plant ■ by the process of retting (a corruption of rotting) and two systems of vetting will be used. One is to leave the plants out in the fields so that the , dew can act on the vegetable matter , and the other is tank retting, which ] is a much faster process, Natural flax will also be produced without retting, but, "natural" fibre requires more processing later. The factories , are supplied with large tanks, where \ the plants are soaked at an even temperature for from four to seven days. Bacterial action decomposes the vegetable matter from the fibre and it. is i easily removed later by the scutcher. ; ! From the tanks the sheaves are taken < tol paddocks for gaiting and drying, i Gaiting consists of standing the stook i up with the roots spread in an even i circle and the tops, which are de- \ seeded before retting, leaning inwards, j

The dried plants are returned to. the factory, where they are passed through the scutcher which combs the

vegetable matter from one end while the other is held by travelling belts, and then repeats the process on the

other end. The fibre emerges from the scutcher on a chain similar to that used in a flax mill and is twisted into hanks(called stricks in the linen-flax industry r after being given a final touch to remove knots on a hand comb. The stricks are then baled and are .ready for grading for export. BRITAIN'S REQUIREMENTS. Before the outbreak of war Britain used 60,000 tons of linen-flax fibre, 54,000 tons being imported, the bulk of it from Baltic countries and Belgium. Consequently the bulk of Britain's requirements was cut off early in the war. A plan was developed for growing flax in Britain and the Dominions. New Zealand's share being put at 3000 tons of fibre, requiring 14,000 acres. The Empire plan antici-. pated the production of about 22,000 tons in the first year. Obviously this will have to be increased as wartima requirements are very ereat.