Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1861-03-08

ealts with tho osher powders may be
gwen, and repeated as occasion may
require. VaHey Farmer.
FLAX CoyToN.-The people in Bos-
ton arc becoming quite exercised on
the subject Of flax cotton in regard to
which, as an article for successful cul-
tivation and manufacture, there is a
diversity Of opinion. A discussion at
an agricultural meeting in the State
House last week, gave new prominence.
From communications published in the
Boston Courier, we make few ex-
tracts. Mr.. +. H. Derby, speaking Of
q movement now in progress in Boston
for the manufacture of flax cotton
fabrics, says:
In the ordinary culture of flax, the
great expense is after the plant has
ripened. Five sxths Of the expenses
are incurred in preparing the ripened
flax by the cd and wearisome process
for the spindle. This l am assured is
avoided by the new process, and the
crop requiring little more care than q
field Of corn, by horse power harvested
like hay, and then threshed and broken
by mechanism, is by solvents then con-
verified into fax cotton and afforded te
the manufacturers, as l am crcdibly
informed, at eight cents per pound. -
The results in Indiana and Ohio show
that vast tracts of land are cultivated
for the seed only, and that iftee1
bushels Of fax seed, with nothing from
the fax straw, annually pay the cult
vator better than ,Oheat.
The new process converts the refuse
straw Of a good acre Of flax, otherwise
useless, into 1000 pounds Of linten, ,
textile material worth $50 or $40, ant
, into ton and q quarter more Of shives
, stated to be nearly as valuable as ha,
for feeding stock, ard worth not ia
from $40 more.
A single acre of flax produces ant
has produced 800 pounds Of fax cot
, ton. This cotton gives but three pc
:, cent. waste in manufacture, while com
mon cotton loses, by English returns
; eleven per cent. Of its weight in waste
o The crop of one acre Of fax has there
, fore equalled two bales of cotton
i, In South Carolina and India it take
upon an average sac to eighk. acre
+ without artificial stimulants to produc
q ten bales Of cotton by ordinary culture
l am advised that Messrs. Sampson
r Tappan and other highly respectable
e gentlemen are now erecting machiner
o to card, spin, and weave this cotton
y and developing this new invention, tina
+ their process has surmounted the diff
culties that beset the Chevelier Clan
sen, that their fax cotton equals in mos
a particulars and surpasses in others tn
h common cotton, and can be furnishes
J at one. third less than the present pric
r of cotton in the Boston market.
r Mr.. Stephen M. Allen argues strong
ly in favor of the new invention, a
follows:
! Flax can lie raised in any Of tn
Northern States at a profit to tn
, farmer. That it is not an EXHAUSTIVE
+ crop when cultivated preparatory to tn
. new system for manufac turing ''Fibril
, lia." That it can be cottonized il
. Massachusetts (whether the linten i
raised in this State or in the West a
a cost which, when added to the cost O.
the linten, shall be less than cotton
That all y~rns or cloths made from it
, either Of pure flax or mixed with cot
ton, are stronger than as though made
Of cotton alone, and in every respec
better. That, from present appear
ances, any quantity efNar which may
be wanted will be produced in thu
North, as fast as the machinery Cal
be made to work it up; and that the
State Of Ohio alone could raise more
"Fibrllia" than the whole cotton croE
of the South.