Cultivation of Phormium Tenax.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5015, 24 May 1889, Page 3

Cultivation of Phormium Tenax.

As a good deal of discussion is going on amongst those interested in the flax industry, as to the future supply of the raw material and as to tho time that must elapse before a second cutting can be got, or as to the possibility of growing the plants like other farm crops, a reporter of the Southland News collected the following information from Mr T. Waugh, corporation gardener : Mr Waugh*says there are some phormium plants growing in the Corporation Nursery which were raised from seed and are now eight or nine years old. They might have been cut two years ago, which would make the time from the seed sowing to the cutting at least six years. The seed would have to be sown in nursery rows, in the same way as tree seeds, July or August being the time. Light soil is best for it, as for other seeds, and rows are better than beds, because they can bo more easily weeded, The young plants would stand two years in the seed rows, and tho quantity required to plant an acre jwould, for these two years, occupy a very small piece of ground. When taken up they would be too small to plant out permanently, but should bo transplanted into other nursery rows, and a few inches between each plant allowed. The plants would occupy these rows during tho third and fourth seasons, and would then bo ready to plant out in their permanent stations. Allowing other two years for the plants to reach maturity would make them six years old, as before stated, at tho first cutting. Sowing phormium where it was intended to grow permanently would never do at al 1 , la s expense of keeping the ground clean would be so great, and if the weeds were not kept down they would choko the plants. During the time the young plants were in tho nursery rows, the land ultimately to be occupied by them could bo cropped and thns made fit to receive the plants, and if tho permanent rows were made live or six feet apart, some kind of root crop could be grown between them, so as to pay for .keeping the land tilled and free from weeds. Even at the end of six years the ertp would not be a largo one—certainly not two tons of dressed flax to the acre, as some people say they got ; but even one ton at present prices makes it worth considering whether phormium could not be grown as a farm crop. £3O per acre would pay a good many years’ rent, and during the first four years the plants, ns shown above would not occupy much ground. Of course the second cutting would bo greater tho plants by that time having stoolod out and taken up the whole of the ground, and completely suppressed the weeds. Tho second cutting would be got in two, throe, or four years according to circumstances, but very little is known how the plants would act iu a cultivated state. One cannot judge by ybormmm growing in (i wild sUte, Come

old established plants growing by the side of a creek might produce a second crop within two years, but it is not likely that a whole paddock would, unless it was manured or irrigated. Old flax roots could be chopped up like rhubarb, and planted to form a new plantation, but that system of planting trould bo very uncertain, a great many of the pieces would not grow and the expense of planting and replanting would lie far greater than by plants raised from seed. There is no difficulty about sowing the seed—anyone could do it, and the expense of looking after the young plants for four years would bo very little for the quantity required for an acre, if a clean piece of ground is chosen for the nursery rows. Seed could easily be got—everyone knows what it is like and when it is ripe -that is,just when the pods are beginning to open. The land devoted to phormium would have to bo well fenced, for the plants will not etind the treading of cattle, and that is the very reason that, much of the flax growing in a wild state wiil never yield a second crop. The cost of the planting of an acre is not very easdy estimated. The ground would, of course, have to’fce ael ploughed and harrowed to begin with, but the intermediate root crop ought to nearly pay for that. Then the furrows in which to put the plants would be made with the single furrow plough and a marker. Two boys would then put in the plants, one laying them down and the other covering them with a spade or hoe. The number of plants per acre at rows 6fl apart and plants 2ft apart in the rows would b03630,and two boys would put in that number in loss than two days. The cost of the four year old once transplanted plants would be considerably under £t a thousand. It altogether depends on tho quantity grown and the sort of ground chosen for the nursery rows. If dressed flax should bo £3O per ton in six years’ time after this, there is no doubt it would pay to raise it from the seed. If the industry has to be kept going, something must bo done, for the while flax which is accessible will soon get cut, and much of.it will never produce n second crop, or if it does, too many years will ellipse between the first and second cuttings to make it worth while to protect tho plants. Much of the land on our river tints which is subject to occasional floodings would bo suitable for flax growing