PLANTATION METHODS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 168, 17 June 1936, Page 9

PLANTATION METHODS

<s> FLAX INDUSTRY’S FUTURE

UNIFORMITY OF FIBRE NUCLEUS AREA ESTABLISHED For over a decade flax-gTOwing- lias languished as the Cinderella of New Zealand’s primary industries, but the day of transformation is .considered to be close at band. Plantation methods will probably replace sporadic swamp-cutting of native plants, organisation will supersede neglect, and marked variations in the quality of the finished fibre will have to give way to uniformity.

Research activities which have been in progress for some years at Massey College have yielded surprising information, and, antecedent, to the resuscitation of a once valuable export trade, strains of the best plants have been established on an area which is to provide the nucleus for plantation requirements. The dawn of a new era for the flax industry is fast

approaching. VALUE OF EXPORTS. Fibre exports from New Zealand during the present century have returned over £18,000,000, and in 1918 alone had a value of £1,400,000. Now there has come to many, according to a gentleman well versed in the industry, a belated realisation that this field of production has been treated with scant respect amounting to negligence. Flax growing and milling provide much more employment per acre than either dairy farming or sheep farming, and has a. much greater export value per toil. It is an industry that can make New Zealand independent of rope, twine, woolpack and sack importations, a vital matter in the days of self-con-tained economic units. The fundamentals a.re there, and the raw materials available, for secondary industries The bulk of the Empire’s cordage requirements for the Navy and the mer cantile marine is not produced within its territories, but the lull development of the New Zealand flax industn would offer security. The preferentia duty of 10 per cent, imposed undei the Ottawa Agreement for Empire fibres gives protection against the out puts of Mexico, the Philippine Island and Java. Competition among hare, fibres in the Empire is largely restrict ed to African sisal and New Zealam hemp, but the former is front mandat ed territory. New Zealand flax is the one plant indigenous to this country which is ol any considerable Importance in international agriculture, tyid this should stimulate national pride.' The total world output of hard fibres is about 500.000 tons annually, and of this New Zealand has supplied, in boom years, about 20.000 tons, but this has dwindled to less than 1000 tons. Consequently, double or treble this country’s output would have little effect on the total annual world tonnage. Sisal and Manila, grown in tropical belts where land and labour are cheaper than in New Zealand, have mainly contributed towards New Zealand’s decline, owing to severe competition, often at prices which the New Zealand industry has been unable to meet.

SUPERIORITY AND WEAKNESS. There is, however, no doubt of the superiority of New Zealand flax as an efficient fibre-producing plant, a fact that is shown by the anxiety of otliei countries to grow New Zealand flax rather than its rival plants. There are two outstanding reasons for this preference. New Zealand needs only about ten tons of leaves to produce one ton of fibre, whereas sisal, our main competitor, takes about 30 tons of leaves per toil of fibre. The cutting and handling of this extra weight are expensive. Furthermore, New Zealand flax, once planted, is permanent, but sisal, in most parts of the world, has to be renewed septennia.lly. British Admiralty tests have shown conclusively that New Zealand hemp a.nd. sisal can be used instead of Manila for marine cordage. It should be emphasised, however. that New Zealand hemp, in strength tests, on which most emphasis is laid, in a large number of cases merely reached the minimum strength requirements. An improvement and greater regularity in strength are needed if our precarious hold on this important market is to he retained or extended.

With distinct advantages in its favour, it might seem odd that New Zealand flax lias not made more commercial progress, but there are underlying reasons. Our workers receive much higher wages than does coloured labour. Moreover, our competitors operate on a plantation system, which facilitates and cheapens cutting and transport to the mill. New Zealand flax grows wild under conditions which increase the costs of cutting and handling. It has been found on the Massey College property that a man can daily cut twice as much plantation leaf as wild leaf. Another factor is that New Zealand fibre, as exported, has all been the fin-

islved product of the wild plant varieties, whereas competing fibres are from specially tested and selected strains. Consequently, our fibre is not only inferior in quality, but hardly any two lots are similar, for there are hundreds of varieties of wild flax, some being worse than others. REMEDIAL MEASURES. Poor organisation has crippled the industry. There has been no continuity of supplies reaching the market. Naturally, the consumer uses the fibre which he can purchase at any time, and on the quality of which he can rely. These are only some of the weaknesses of the New Zealand industry, but they are grave defects. The question is, what remedies should be applied. The first stops in this direction a re:

(1) Plantations must be established -o that llax can be grown and handled is a cultivated crop, a step, which could result in greater production per lere and in smaller labour costs. (2) These plantations must be built :p with tested and selected strains of Hants-which will give a much superior iroduct to the present fibre, simulaueously increasing its value. (3) It will be necessary, in some way, o regulate production and marketing f fibre on similar lines to the methods dopted for other export goods in iast years. The object of sucli ,regu.ition, which would perhaps be best arried out bv the industry itself, is to usure regularity of quantity and quality in the world’s markets.

Work carried on a.t the' Massey Agricultural College for the past eight years aims at improvements along these lines —namely, to convert the industry from the use of wild flax to the utilisation of raw materials produced from high grade strains under plantation conditions. It will take years to provide sufficient numbers of the right plants, and therefore such work should be well under way before any radical changes a.re made in the organisation of the industry.

The position now is that there are about thirty acres set out in good plants, and in some three years there should be at least ten times as much. Once the slow initial stage oi increasing the plants is over, expansion will be rapid, and in the next ten years there should he sufficient plants to set out about 10.000 acres. It will he necessary to determine the best methods of growing and handling cultivated crops of flax. Furthermore, careful work in the inheritance of different qualities of flax will have to be carried out simultaneously, so that the standard of fibre-producing pla.nts is steadily raised. A BEGINNING MADE.

Just about a year ago some seventy acres of land were secured in the heart of the Manawatu flax area, at Moutoa, near Shannon. The best plants were transplanted troni Masse v College to this area, which will be the plantation nucleus to supply the requirements of flax-growers in this and other districts. K LAX-CUTTING MACH IN US. Engineers anticipate no serious difficulty in designing flax-cutting machines, but it is not to be expected that such machines will bo made until the flax industry takes the initiative by planting flax suitably for handling by machinery. A saving of about £1 per to7i of fibre bv the use of such a machine is probable. Further economies in correctly laid out plantations would be due to lowered transport charges on green leaf being taken to the mill. At present the haulage of green leal costs from 24s to about £3 per ton of fibre, according to the availability of suitable mill sites near the natural flax swamps. The better varieties handled under the above conditions with no alterations in methods ol manufacture would produce a much stronger and more uniform fibre of lietter colour and suited for use in directions where its present lack of these qualities leaves the field open to higher priced fibres such as Manila and sisal. Once the industry is placed on a more stable basis, there are several improvements such as mechanical sorting and feeding of leaves to the stripper, improved washing and bleaching methods, and artificial drying, some or a I of which would be installed. Although manv of these methods would lower costs’ by abolishing some labour charges, yet the increased efficiency should ultimately lead to expansion and greater total labour requirements. 'I he main reason that such improvements arc not incorporated at once is the uncertainty of prospects, and the poverty ol the industry. Apart from improvements to existing machinery, it is by no means improbable that methods based on new principles of manufacture may bring about economies and improvements ol quality in the near future.