NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 2, 4 January 1910, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

A"SCiiBNTIST'S INVESTIOA

TIONS

Cpbess association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 4. Miss Bella Cross, M.A., has for neveral months been engaged in preliminary work, of investigation re- • garding Now* -Zealand flax and the Sossibility of developing the flax inustry by the application of more scientific methods than hitherto employed; gave an interview to a reporter to-day. She said that she was <Btot concerned with the mechanical •side of, the industry. The best method of extracting fibre in com. , aaercial form must be determined by , 'engineers;; her object was to discover .which, variety of flax* would prove most profitable for cultivation, giving the largest and I most valuable yield of 'fibre, and which localities were besjfc adapted for growth. One of the most important sections of her research would be the, preparation of p, work to provide ».j direction, to all publications bearing on the subject. •As yet no such work has been compiled, and no index works of reference are available.

, # Miss Cross has already spent some time examining the, libraries and institutes in Christehurch, Wellington, amjbAtiekland, and'js, going to Dunedin with the cam© object. Many eee^lfugs. of different kinds have been. pfliniied in the Christchurch botanical gardens, arid theip. development will be watched by Miss Cross this 3'ear. Comparatively little, is known about the different varieties, and experimentation has not been very satis- ♦ factory. ' Miss Cross's work will occupy two <Dr three years. *