Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-06-02
The Culture of Flax.

The cultivation of this important
product of western soil is daily grow
ing ia interest among farmers and
manufacturers. It's value has hith-
erto been greatly underestimated.
Within the last few years flax has
been raised only for the seed, the
straw, or fiber, being allowed to go
waste simply because there has been
no market for it. This cause has
been to very great extent removed.
Machinery has been so constructed
as to work up this article to good adj
vantage, and mill of this charac-
ter, owned by j. NJ. Allen, has been
for some time in successful operation,
in Cardington, Ohio, in which the
flax fiber is manufactured into bag
ging, which is extensively used for
covering cotton bales 1t has been
demonstrated by actual experience
that bagging made from flax straw
- stronger, more durable, and can
be made heavier than foreign bag
ging, and is decidedly better article
Tor balelng purposes than anything
heretofore brought into market. All
that is needed to make the raising of
flax permanent and paying bust
ness is government protection; that
Is, we should have a tariff on Jute
and imported bagging. If this can
be secured it will encourage enter
prising men to erect and put in ope-
ration flax mills in all parts of the
country where flax straw Is now suf-
fered to go to waste, and a large
amount of capital would be invested
in manufacturing at home articles
which are now imported from abroad
at heavy tariff.
To show what may be done viz
the fiber of flax, suppose the cotton
crop in a given season would produce
AN average of 3,000, 900 bales. To COW
or this crop would take %, 0OO, 900
yards of bagging, requiring go. oO0, 900
pounds of flax or POO, 600, 900 pounds
OF straw. At 800 per tun, this cal
culation would put into the pockets
of farmers $500, 600 which heretofore
las been utterly wasted through
sheer neglect and Indifference. Sure
~ this is worth looking after But
this is not all; the preparation of tow
and its manufacture into bagginp
would require an expenditure of three
or four times n much more for labor
ers and operatives. lii addition to
bagging for covering cotton, a great
many other articles are needed in the
manufacture of which flax could be
nSed to great advantage. Take, for
instance, the single article ofgunney-
bags.
The impOrtations of 1867 and '6s
amounted to 30, 1SS bales, each con-
tanning go bags, or 2,547 900 bags
which might all be made of flax and
To manufacture which would require
over 100000 900 pounds of flax straw
Foreign bags and bagging are made
from an article called Jute, and the
Jute Butts are by no means so strong
and durable a. those made from flax
The tow can also be made into coarse
carpets for Office covering and an
sWerS very we'll.
But the value of the crop is not al
lodged in the fiber, merely the seed
itself brings in "A handsome revenue
Indeed, we see no reason at all why
the culture of flax should not be made
as profitable here, and so popular, sc
to speak, as it has become in Europe
and if Congress would give it protec
ton by levying a tariff on JGte and
foreign baggiag it would no doubt
add very much to the wealth of this
country.