Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-10-26

- nave cheap ana fertile
ana IN aoundance,, and a climate well
adapted 70 the growth of fax, still we
are not apie to supply, or at least do
mot suPPlN our home manufactures
WITH the o,n9o tons required by them
annually Why this neglect of flax by
our farmers IS a question for them to
answer. Dut t'appears to Us that before
attempting 10 raise silk in competition
with tue Shlnese and Japanese, or en-
gage IN ramle and jute culture, it
would DC well TO pay a little more at
tention TO the old, well-known and use-
full flax. There was a time when the
farmers in our Northern States consid-
cred lax one of the crops,
and little was raised almost every year
for home use, If none, for sale; but as
The homeSpun linen went out of fashion,
tie field OF flax disappeared from many
thousands OF our farms. and we COM
menced TO import the raw material, in
stead OF raising il at home. 1t is true
that flax Is still cultivated quite extern
sirely in the United States, but princi.
pally fJr the seed. the valuable fiber be-
ing in great part wasted; hence the ne.
cessity Of importing flax to keep our
A correspondent of the Dry Goods
BaAcfin III. kaeikenbeck),s has recent
~ written several excellent papers on
this b1ect of flax culture in the United
States, in which he shows quite conclu-
sively that our farmers are neylectine
crop that would pay them well to cul-
tivate TAR more extensively than they
are doing at present. He says that
there are in the United States l,127.00C
acres under flax cultivation, and that
13o,O9O tons of fiber might be turned
out of it if saved and put in merchant
able conditions; but instead of being
saved it Is wasted, and the farmer only
gets an average of seven dollars per
acre for the seed. whereas in Russia an
acre of flax produced more than SAB,
the difference being the careful culture
and tho saving of the fiber As well as
the seed. We annually pay over S25,.
bOO,OG0 to foreign nations for the linen
goods we import. and this sum will nat.
urally increase i'm the same ratio rs
eur population increases, and by the
end of this century it will take twice as
much to pay for our imported linen
goods Is now. While we have been
negleeting fax culture, or at least the
saving and utilizing of the fiber, Euro.
pean- nations have been giving il i'm.
creased attention. Russia, for instance,
has, during the past fifteen years, in.
creased her flax products nearly 300
per cent, and she now, employs over
10000 hands in her fax spinning mills
and linen factories. Great Britain,
France, Germany, and Belgium raise
n - Df H.
ono half that is used In their linen man.
ufactories, and there is good market
for all the flax fabric that our farmers
can produce, even IL it is not wanted AT
home a
Mr.. Kaelkenbeck gives statistics to
show what it costs to raise an acre of
flax in Holland, France and some other
European countries, and also. estimates
of the cost in our Western States, where
the land is both richer and cheaper than
in our Eastern; but we are inclined to
think he overlooks the high price and
scarcity of labOrers, when he excuses
the fax growers of needless waste in
throwing away the fiber and saving
only the seed. The expense of pulling,
rotting andpreparing flax for market
Is not practicable. Unless the farmer
has the Necessary and we may say extra
help required at hand, and this must he
cheap labor, in order to make the pre-.
pared flax pay the cost of preparation.
The labor question Is an important one
with our agriculturists. and while they
are fully alive to the fact that much is
wasted that might be saved, they do not
see how it can be avoided while labor
30, iaIV en- L.
present day. 1t is certainly to be re-
GREETED that so many thousands of tons
of flax straw should be burned up or
left to rot in heaps when every pound
of fiber that it would yield is needed
for the manufacture of linen goods; but
If it will cost more to save it than it is
worth to the raiser, he shows his wis
dom by allowing it to go to waste.
The Western farmers have long
been accustomed to burn their wheat
straw to get it out of the way, and also
to let their corn stalks rot in the field:
and while it seems to be pity that so
much valuable material should be
wasted, still, under the circumstances,
we do not readily see how it can be
avoided. For half century the mill
ions of bushels of cotton seed raised in
our Southern States was treated as
waste material. to be disposed of in the
cheapest manner possible; but there has
been great change in the past few
years. and all this, which was formerly
considered valueless material, is now
utilized, and has become source OF
revenue to the individual growers, as
well rs to the country at large. II will,
no doubt, be the same with flax fiber
when labor becomes more abundant.
and farmers learn the cheapest and
best methods of saving and preparing it
for market. Our farmers may be slow
To adopt new systems of culttire or make
any very great change in the kinds of
plants generally cultivated, but they
will never hesitate to save when there
is the least chance of making money by
so doing. If they can be shown how
money can be made By saving the flax
straw that Is now wasted, they will no
doubt be very thankful for the informa-
tion.-M " SIM .iir .f.fs- s'.t %. 90.