FLAX INDUSTRY
AUSTRALIAN PLANS CANBERRA, Dec. 1. A vast amount of experimental work on flax is proceeding throughout Australia, to secure maximum production for wartim ■ needs and to establish the industry after tl.'. war. From a crop of 1000 acres in the Im t pre-war year, the growing area increased tc 52,000 acres in 1943-44. FJax will probably become one of the big sidelines to sheep farming in Ihe western districts of Victoria, which this year has 5000 acres under crop. Attempts are being made to produce a disease-resisting type of flax suited to Australian conditions and a system has boon which adaptes machinery to do the harvesting. Under this system the standard crop is deseeded with a converted agricultural heading machine, and the straw' is then cut and spread for retting with a now type of reaper-spreader machine, which leaves it in rows in the iield for dew retting. It is hand-turned in the paddocks, but finally is collected with a pick-up bind .• which ties is into sheaves for scutching. The result has been a big reduction in handling costs and in the use of manpower, so that there is a prospect of Australia producing average grade fibre as cheaply as any place in the world.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21582, 8 December 1944, Page 7
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207FLAX INDUSTRY Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21582, 8 December 1944, Page 7
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