Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-09-07
IN A BIG TWINE FACTORY.
INTERESTING SIGHTS AND FACTS
ABOUT a GREAT INDUSTRY.
Flax and Hemp Used in Making the
Twine-W Orking Up the Fibre
The Flax SUNNY


hemp strings made in this country every
year, not the big sort of strings that are
dignltied by special titles, such as lines,
ropes, cables, and hawsers, but just
strings that are Jumped together under
the broad name of twines. And, besides,
there are great quantities of cotton
strings, and here and there still few
paper ones, though the latter-invented
when cotton was so high priced during
the war, and then quite common-are
now seldom seen.
There are eight Irvine factories, three
in the upper part of this State, two in
Massachusetts,, two in Newark, and one,
the largest, in this city, at Eleventh ave
nue. and Fifty-seventh street. This latter
employs 500 hands, and turns out IA, 600
pounds per diem of finished twines and
shoe thread, ranging in value from IA
cents to $50 per pound. In addition
to these eight there are scattered
through the East several small establ sh-
fnents, but there are none, large or small,
in the West and South
Mr.. Hinde, the general manager Of the
Eleventh avenue factory, accords some
interesting facts concerning the industry.
He says: we use only fax and hemp.
We have experimental with other fibres,
principally ramie, but they did not
work well. The necessary processes of
manufacture seemed to take all their
strength out of them. Cotton string is
made in the cotton factories, not by
Irvine makers. Most of the flax that we
use is imported, the finest grades from
Holland and France, and its cost is from
GAO to SO sterling per ton. Flax tow,
which we also use, costs 10 or II cents
per pound. Some flax is supplied
in this country, but not a great deal.
Hundreds and thousands of tons of
flax straw are burned up annually by
our Western farmers. They grow it for
the sake of the seed, and will not take
the trouble to save the valuable fibre
from the straw. In Canada, the Ontario
millers pay the farmers $40 per acre for
flax land, the miller supplying the seed
farmer does IS to plough the Iaud and
seed it in. There both seed and fibre
are carefully saved, and it is much to be
regretted that our agriculturists are not
equally thrifty. [ know that prejudice
exists in the minds of many farmers
against flax, because they believe that it
wears out the land so rapidly; but a
contrary opinion is entertained by many
equally welI-informed growers. L know
of farm in Canada that has been planted
IN flax for twenty years, and yields as
muCn now as ever.
1--WE get a good deal of hemp from
Kentucky, and some from Missouri and
Illinois, but are forced to depend mainly
upon foreign supply. Our native hemp
Is worth @l2O per ton unhackled, or
about 10 cents per pound unhackled,
while the best from abroad-the Italian
costs $40 per ton. Our Kentucky hemp
is Of strong and long fibre, generally
about IL feet LONG, but has dark,
dirty brown color. There is no reason,
however, why it should not be p; oduced
as fine and white as the Italian. l re-
member seeing, in 1910, some hemp
grown by Henry Clay on his plantation,
and prepared for the market under his
supervision, which was equal to any i'm
ported The next best hemp to the
Italian is the German. The Russian is
coarse and dark. By bleaching and
softening its tibres we arc enabled to
make Irvine from hemp that is so smooth,
strong and fine that it is hardly dis
tinguishable from linen Irvine, still, for
the best goods, such as harness twine|
or loom cord" and fishing lines, we
employ only the purest and best flax.
For certain grades of Irvine, flax and
hemp are used together, and some of
our small brightly -colOred cords used
for the ornamental tying up of packages,
are made wholly of hemp which takes
and retains bright dyes much better
than flax does.
Superintendent Hinde. a big, good
natured, and good-looking young giant,
led the way into a realm of CHATTER, roar
rattle and dust, the first impress Cd at
sight of which was that it was an in
eXtricable confusion of girls and
machinery, that the girls all had their
hair in curl papers, and that they were a
tine lot Of sturdy armed young ANA ons.
The flax fibre" he sad, lis first
combed, or, as it is technically termed,
'scutched' Then it goes to the spread
board, where it is laid out straight, and
of as uniform thickness as possible, in
four lines, on endless aprons that carry
it up to hack!e- like teeth, that hold it
straight and steady while it is subjected (
to the drawing action of rollers moving
faster than the rate of its delivery. The !
soft, even band of straight fbres thus
formed is called a silver Twelve of
these are put into a drawing frame, eX |
tended and delivered as one, and this |
operation is repeated three times, twelve
'slivers' each time being drawn into one |
which is not thicker than one of the !
twelve had been before drawing. By |
this time the tibres are all straight and !
disposed with perfect evenness. The |
silver is now lightly twisted, and so
I,oco,na- 1ro,-a ready for tho cniuOiDo !