LINSEED GROWING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18021, 21 February 1922, Page 10

LINSEED GROWING.

NEW ZEALAND' DEMAND'.

A REJnJNERATIVE CROP.

Linseed, growing, in New- Zealand offers wido opportunities.- now for farmers, with, suitable land. Hitherto, the only, market fov this crop was im Great Britain, but owing to the erection: of. » large- factory, in Auckland, which makes linseed- oil,, cattle oato and. similar products a, local' demand, has been created, which cnn absorb all the. linseed' likely-' to. be. raised, in litis country for. many years.- to- come. Ate present priws Unseed, will return nearly twice as much per aero- as a. 33. bushel' crop' of: wheat sold at ss. per bushel. In other word* a ton of. wheat- at ss. per bushel is worth £8 15s, whilst, a* torn of linseed is worth: on an. average- about £14, and in some- eases £1& But tlte seed, itwlf is not* tire only commercial, product; of this' crop. It is- recognised, thafe the straw from linseed; even when not grown specially for llhro purposes;, has ;v markets ablo v«liie, and it is probable that the ordinary flax mills of Now Zealand might work- it up into an exportable article: Even if the linseed straw raised from crops mown entirely for seed, and harvested in the samo manner as oate or wheat, were worth only half tho, value-of that grown specially for fibre, it would srill b* worth from £3 to £4 per acre, making' the total return from £17 to upwards of £20 per acre, and since the cost of cultivation, seed, manure, rent, harvesting, carting, etc., is estimated only at £4 10s to- £* 15s per acroj it will be seen that there is a very handsome profit when seasons are favourable. The advantages of growing linseod in New Zealand ar.& not confined merely to tho direct monetary returns to the farmer; tho manufacture of paint oils, cattle cake, pig and poultry foods, besides providing employment for labour, and therefore increasing the local markets for farmers' products, undoubtedly are beneficial to tho farming industry, as these concentrated stock foods help to increase the returns from dairying, pork niisiug and poultry-keeping. But or course the prime importance of linseed growing is that it provides a crop which gives good- money value, acts as a cleanser to the soil, and suits well- in rotation for the renewal and improvement of pastures. The Question of Soil.

Li usted grows well on a variety of soils, hut the soil which suits it best seem s to be a well-ilrained moderately light clay loam. Some of die Canterbury lands have proved "well adapted for the growth of linseed-, and Canterbury farmers have raised this- crop for many years,, finding • it evidently profitable cnougu, even when the only market was in Great Britain. Out of the total of 5046 acres tender linseed for the whole of the Dominion last year, SOU acres were grown in, Canterbury, but it must not be supposed that Canterbury possesses peculiar advantages in this respect. As a matter of fact many other pasts of New Zealand, and particularly of. the North Island, have proved specially well adapted for this. crop. The Manawatu district grows an excellent quality of linseed, and gives good, yields. Canterbury averages about half a. ton of . seed per acre, whereas in the Palmerston $orth district yields tip to 22 cwt have been obtained; the Agricultural Department has grown very good samples of linseed on tho Auckland gum lands, and it is probable that many districts in the northern province may be found suitable for this crop. If it has paid Canterbury farmers i» . the past to raise linseed with the only markets 12,000 miles away, it should pay ] Northern fanners to grow' It with- an assured market at their own doors. It may be said that there is an assured local demand now at s minimum price of something over £10 per ton on trucks, with tads suppled, and the probability is that an average of about £14 per ton can be. secured. Sowing and Harvesting. The Victorian Agricultural Journal recently slated that the cultivation and harvesting of the flax crop cost much the same as in the case of oaten hay, except that special caro is required to get a clean, fine seed bed. The crop is harvested with the ordinary reaper and binder,' and the ordinary threalring/ mill can thresh it— the only alterations against the adjustments for oato or wheat bong & little * close; setting; It vrill be seen that even when grown for send alone there is a good return to 1)6 obtained from linseed, bat as is natural such a crop would be all tie more profitable if a market can be found for the stralw as well. It has to be recognised, of course, that a big yield of first-class ,s«cd cannot be obtained together with a bitf yield of first-class fibre, but experiments carried out during recent years have demonstrated the fact that the straw from flax, grown especially for seed, has a considerable market value, and the market improvement made in flax breaking and scutching machinery has greatly reduced the cost of turning it into a commercial fibre. The various processes of retting, by which the adhesive substances which bind the fibres to the stem are dissolved, are still much the same as they were 2000 years ago, and all that need be said in this respect is that the cHmatio conditions and waters of New Zealand are well adapted tor this purpose; but the old hand scutching and hackling which would have made the preparation of fibre almost imposiible in this country, on account of labour edsts, has been superseded by the invention of the Helsing machine, which, with only a 1| horsepower engine, can turn out 1001b. of fibre per day. This machine, it is claimed, not only combines the two processes of breaking and scutching in one sing'e continuous process, but gives 14w per cent. of fibre from straw, whilst the old hand process, even under skilled workers, only • gave from 8 per cent, to 12£ per cent.