FLAX.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1118, 14 January 1870, Page 3

FLAX.

(From the "Sotijiljern Cposs," January 3 j Almost all the experiments on methods of separating the fibre from the cufcielei g-iini, and cellular tissue, which have been "made since, the material began td' attract a Jdrge share" of attention, have been made on the green leaf,—*\t having been set down as an axiom that it is impossible to remove the •impurities thoroughly xtnder other conditions. We have recently, however, seen an account of an experiment which was tried on a small scale on the completely dried leaf, so long ago as the year of the Great Exhibition. The leaf, Which had been cut twelve months previously, was simply submitted to the action of a common English flax hackling machine, and then thoroughly washed. The account says that the result was a first-class article, totally free from extraneous matters. Ifc would, perhaps, be advisable to make further trials with the completely dried plant, — not the half-dried, — for it is a question not yet properly decided as to whether in that state the objectionable matters may not become so friable as to be readily crushed and then washed out. There is one other subjedt to which it is, perhaps, as well to call . attention. On several occasions lately we have been informed thafc some capitalists are taking some steps to secure large tracts of flax land in the more easily accessible localities — not with a view to utilise the crops themselves, but to hold them in hand with the purpose of ultimately making large profits by the sale of the land, thus making a kind of monopoly of the most readily attainable crops, and driving adventurers in this branch of industry furtherback to out-of-the-way places, where difficult, carriage and other increased expenses must, materially heighten the cost of production. As such proceedings must, to some extent, tend to retard the development of this mosb important source of national wealth, it would perhaps be well, if the statement be correct, for some of our councillors to look into the matter, and by legislative enactment endeavour to check the growth of the evil, or to raise a revenue from it. — Communicated.