FLAX OR LINT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1585, 8 April 1882, Page 7

FLAX OR LINT.

The year 1881 deserves a special notice in our Agricultural Records as the year in which an additional article has been added to the list of those cultivated in the Province. Hitherto farmers, although they may have been experi. menting on a small scale with other plants, have' confined their attention and labour to the production of corn, roots, andgrass as thesources from which the profit of their industry should proceed. Now, in addition, a plant yielding oil and fibre has been added to the list, and we have no fear but the result of the venture will be highly satisfactory to all who have taken part in it.

Perhaps no plant known to agriculture is capable of such wide and general adaptation as the flax. The range of climate and variety of Boil in which it can be easily grown, the facility with which it can be handled by women and children, the numerous purposes to which each and all of its several parts can be applied, and the regular and steady remunerative market which is v always open for stem and fruit, all combine to render it a first article in importance in the catalogue of farm products. In almost all civilised countries in the world flax is cultivated and has its date far back in the remote past. It suits itself to a clayey, vegetable,, or Bandy soil; it thrives in the and clime of , Australia, and prospers in the more humid atmosphere of New Zealand ; the dwellers' in tents in Egypt, the down-trodden peasants of Russia, the practical farmers of Western Europe, and the energetic adventurous aettlers pushing theirway far west alongthe rail way lines in America make it a prominent item of their culture, the latter finding it a profitable first crop on newly broken up land, and have no difficulty in disposing of their produce. Formerly flax was considered a very exhausting crop on i the soil, but chemistry has demonstrated that such is not the case, it has shown that the woody matter, the gluten, the seeds, and the husks of the boll or capsule in which they are contained, are the exhausting portions of tho crop, and these for the most part are in different forms returned to the soil, the fibre being composed almost exclusively of materials derived from the atmosphere, viz.— -carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, with a small per centage of mineral substances in no way affecting tioo lftncL To what a variety of purposes is the flax plant applied ! From the seed the linseed oil is expressed, so well known for its useful qualities ; then the residue after the oil is < obtained is i pressed or rolled into cakes, forming one of the most valuable of feeding stuffs for cattle ; the seed, boiled and fed to calves, or in occasional quantities to horses, is of the highest importance; again, medicinally, an infusion is greatly prized for pulmonary complaints, or ground into meal for outward application as a poultice. The fibre is spun into thread, yarn, or' rope, woven into fabrics from sailcloth to table-linen, and further into the finest cambric handkerchiefs : and it can be manufactured alone or mixed, with cotton, wool, or silk. As already stated the unmarketable portion is that extracted from the soil, and which is left on the farm in the preparation for market, and a further fact is that cattle and sheep fed from linseed cake leave a deposit of far more manurial value than is produced from any other artificial feed, „,'.. The immediate cause leading to the introduction of flax as a leading article in husbandry is certainly due to the bonus offered by the Government for the first qnantities of oil and cake produced from seed grown in the colony. The offer has been accepted by a Dunedin firm, at whose invitation a number of leading farmers in different parts of the province and South Canterbury have responded and produced a considerable quantity of seed which is now being delivered at the works in Great King street, a description of which appears elsewhere. No offer was made by the Government of a bonus for the preparation and manufacture of the fibre, which was without doubt an extraordinary blunder, seeing that the fibre is far and avay the most valuable portion of the crop. Naturally growers ask what is to be done with the straw ? Cattle won't eat it, and it is of little value as manure. One correspondent, J. 8., Palmerston, has asked our assistance in the difficulty, and to him and our other friends we gladly communicate all information in our power. As stated in our short reply in last week's issue, experiments are being made which from several causes are not yet completed, but so Boon as finished, results and processes will be communicated to our readers. J. B. gives the extent of land sown and the quantity of seed allowed per acre. To grow for seed alone the quantity might suffice, out when both fibre and seed ace contemplated a freer allowance of seed should be given, but of this wo shall treat on a future occasion. For the present our remarks will apply more particularly to the preparation of the fibre.

First, as to the removal of the seed bolls. This is usually and best done by drawing the flax bundle through what is called a rippingcomb — simply a piece of board with wires so stuck in and arranged as to catch the capsules while the straw is being drawn through, and so detach them from the stem. Afterwards the seed is easily beaten out. The great advantage of this mode of stripping is that the fibres are kept straight, and the husks of the capsules completely removed. The operation is very Bimple, and the work light, and may be pei formed at spare times, having the flax inside a barn. On the capsules being removed, tho stralv can be stowed away in the barn until a marketis obtained. The straw will keep for months under cover without suffering the slightest deterioration, while the seed is at once sent to market. This « the course we recommend our friends to pursue, and at any rate to take good care of their fibre, w in its natural stqfce,

after the seed is stripped off, it is worth from £10 to £12 per ton, in bales, delivered at the nearest railway station. The experiments being made with the fibre are by means of chemicals, simple in their nature, and as simple in their application, of which more hereafter. If, however, they are successful, the result will be to enable the farmer at the smallest cost of labour and expense, to forward his flax to market in the smallest bulk, and in a condition fit for the coarser kinds of manufacture. The only information at hand available as to the practical results of flax-growing in Victoria is from the Golbourn district, shortly described thus :— Quantity sown, two bushels per acre, harvested in four months. Yield of linseed in the proportion of 161b to every pound sown, and if dressed flax, at the rate of four cwt. per acre. The seed was sold at the rate of 3d per lb, and the fibre at £60 per ton, yielding a gross of £22 10s per acre, out of which labour, freight, rent, and charges have to be deducted, leaving a net profit of £8 per acre. The agricultural statistics collected in New Zealand are not of so comprehensive and reliable a character as they might be, and it would, therefore, be esteemed a favour if any of our readers who may have gone in for this crop this season would send us a return, embracing such particulars as nature of soil, extent sown, dates of sowing and pulling, yield per acre of seed, and estimate of fibre. By having such information available, no_ doubt some of our manufacturing industries might be induced to go in for a trial with such stock as can this year be obtained.