FLAX CULTIVATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1555, 27 August 1881, Page 6

FLAX CULTIVATION.

Our remarks in last issue were principally in connection with the growth of flax as an ordinary agricultural product. Its suitability to our climate may be accepted as a certainty, as the range of its growth in the Northern Hemisphere extends from the tropioa to near the polar circle. It is also one of the earliest cultivated plants on record, as we read in the Mosaic Book that from the fearful plague of hail which visited the land of Egypt it was one of the plants which suffered most severely. The language is : " The :barley and the flax were smitten, las the barley was in the ear and the flax was boiled," whioh means that the peri carp or seed pod was formed. Ia the Norih of Ireland and in Scotland it was in former days extensively cultivated, although of late years the production from various causes has been abandoned to a considerable extent, the manufacturers relying for their supply on the northern countries of Europe.

One of the objections which might be urged by farmers against going in for flax as a crop is removed by an advertisement which will be found in our columns. That objection was the want of a local demand for the crop. Mr Singer advertises for Ithe purchase of Beed, in any quantity, at a price which should be fairly remunerative to the grower. We have no certain data on which to make calculation, as no experiments in the growth are at hand to refer to, but taking the yield aa given in our last from a Victorian source— and estimating on that basis, the crop of Beed as about 32 bushels per acre,— ao that the lintseed would produce at the price advertised— ss 6d psr bushel of 601b— the gross sum of L 8 16a per aore. Taking again the yield of fibre at 4 cwt per aore, price 50s to 603 per cwt, an additional sum of LlO to Ll2 per acre would be realised. Taere is an unlimited demand for the fibre at the roperiw, especially ia Dunedin, where Mr Douaguy is prepared to purchase any quantity. Preparing the straw for the market is not now so hazardous and disagreeable a task aa it was wont to be, simply because a different

process is now followed ; and as variouß farmers have asked for information on the subject, we williDgly afford it. The old process was to Bteeptheflaxeitherinstagnautwaterorarunning stream, until a certain degree of fermentation was obtained so as to get rid of the woody part of the stems. This method was very precarious, as unless at the proper time the # fl»x was removed from the water, a deteriorating result was sure to be the consequence, a few hourß serving to irjjure the fibre both aa to Its strength and colour. It was, besides, a very dirty piece of work, and by it, noxious gases were infused into the atmosphere^tendmg to generate diseases } and even after it was properly Bteeped the risk and labour of spreading it on the grass or stubble to bleach and dry waß very great, a continuation of wet days often causing the grower the loss of his entire crop. Chevalier Claussen was the first to discover the new method of preparing, and it ia to the grower a very easy and simple one. After the crop has been dried and the seeds threshed the straw is passed through the rollers of a machine, by which the woody portion of the stem and the seed pods are removed. Flax so prepared is reported on by the Eoyal Flax Society to be well adapted for the manufacture of sailcloth, canvas, nets, twine, and other course articles. When thus prepared and reduced in bulk the flax is in a marketable condition, and the further operation of steeping in hot or cold water may be done in the manufacturing establishment to suit the requirements of the trade,

By the machinery process the farmer will have retained on the farm almost all the ingredients the plant has extracted from the soil, thus removing the accepted idea that the flax is a great scourge on the land. The woody fibre and husks of the seed capsules, which by the ttsepiug process were lost to the farm, are retained, and these constitute the principal in gradients which the soil contributes to the plant. The glutinous matter can only be extracted by the chemical action of steeping, and it is, of course, lost to the land. The fibre of the plant, which is the portion used in manufacturing, is comoosed mostly of atmospheric ingredients — carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, and these are produced in regular quantities by different processes* We would again Btrongly recommend our agricultural friends to go in earnestly and give what is to the great majority of them a new industry a fair trial, believing aa we do that it will be to their permanent advantage. We know that the great advance in the value of cereals in the British and Continental markets may operate aa a counter attraction, specially as these advances are, both from European and American crop prospects reports, likely to be maintained and considerably increased ; still a small spot of an acre or two might be spared to make a trial. We shall willingly grant ( any information in our power to any of our friends on the subject. The present value of linseed in London is about 16* to 18s per cwt.