The Bottineau pioneer., 1890-03-08
ABOUT FLAX GROWING.
ANiNpuSTRY THAT HAS NOT FLOUR
lSHED IN AMERICA.

srywhere--Why 1t Has Met Comparative
Failure In the United states.
There Is hardly thing that grows which
requires more labor to make it useful to
man than fax. From the time the seed
is sown until the finished linen, linseed
oil, or oil cake, is put upon the market,
every process-and they are many and
complex-calls for slow, patient manual
labor. Machinery enters here and there,
J. to be sure, but it has no such important
place in the industry as it has had in
cotton, for instance, since the invention
Of the gin, or in the making Of woolen
fabrics, or leather articles.
In spite, however, Of the toll involved
in cultivating fax and making cloth
from it, and the very considerable
knowledge required to conduct the oper-
ations, the industry is universal to day,
and is more ancient than history itself.
The linen wrappings found on Egyptian
/ mummies were made of fax, and even
j In barbarous countries the nature and
value of the plant is recognized.
Flax is apparently of tropical origin,
but it fourishes to the best purpose in
temperate clines. In the tropics the
seeds are richer and therefore more pro-
ductive of oil, but the best fabric is OBJ
tainel from northern cultivation. The
best product comes from Holland and
Belgium; but this is not so much due to
superior quality of soil as to the extra
ordinary care exercised by the people in
handling the crop. Next to this flax in
quality is the Russian product, though
the Irish crop may be said to be on about
the same level. Ilish linen certainly is
famous enough to justify this supposition.
In Egypt the ancient industry received a
new start about twenty years ago through
the influence of English capitalists, and
by the same initiative it has come to be
an important feature Of agriculture in
New Zealand.
The earliest settlers in New York
brought seed with them from the Meth
erlands, and it was introduced into the
Massachusetts colony in 1929 by statu-
tory order. In 1890 there were manu-
factories in Salem and Springfield for
turning the plant into sail cloth. In sew
eral other colonies about the middle of
the Seventeenth century bounties were
granted for fax cultivation by act of
parliament.
As population has extended westward
fax has followed, so that today some of
the most important Of the fields and
mills of this industry are west of the
Mississippi. At the same time the mag
nitude Of the industry has not increased
in any proportion comparable to the
population or area of the country.
Every device of inventors to improve
the work, every suggestion of scientists
to shorten the long processes of prepar-
ing the fiber for the mill, and every
measure of the legislators to stimulate
cultivation, have failed to push it to the
fore.
OF course the annual product, taken in
gross, Is something immense, measured
by thousands of tons or millions of BUSH
els, and this amount is greater today
than it was fifty years ago, and of course
there are many important factories and
farms devoted to it. But it is striking
fact that In America a great proportion
of the fields first devoted to the growing
of fax have been turned to other crops.
The industry is continually striking into
new soil, and the old fields are either
abandoned or devoted to other purposes.
This is not due to the quality of the
soil. Any good soil, we'll drained and
thoroughly plowed and narrowed, will
serve for the growth of fax. Sandy
loans, where there is good and regular
rainfall in the spring, are better than
any other lands, but there is an abund-
ance of this kind of soil in America and
no lack of natural opportunities for ex-
cellent products.
The secret of the slow development of
the industry, or rather of its limited
scope, lies in the high cost of manual
labor. The crop cannot be reaped, like
wheat and barley, by machinery, but
must be patiently and carefully plucked
up by the roots by hand. It also re-
quires careful wedding when the plant is
about three inches high. After the crop
is gathered the seeds have to beseparated
from the stalk, q process that may be &C.
complished by threshing machine, but
in many parts Of the world, where the
best fabric is obtained, it is done by hand
and "rippling comb" a crude affair
with iron teeth, through which the stalks
are drawn. a handful at q time. ~
II is said that four men with these
combs can separate the seeds from an
acre crop in one day. Then the stalks
must be stepped until fermentation takes
place. This is one Of the longest pro-
cesses, and one upon which inventors
have expended great deal of labor.
The best authorities seem to agree that
the most desirable results are obtained
from the slowest process, as the intro
duction Of chemicals, ETC.. to hasten fer
mentation affects the inner fiber injuri-
ously. A good many things follow after
this before the outside husk Of the stalk
is removed and the inner fiber separated
from the core and made ready for the
spinner.
All this involves vast amount of la
Dor in which there is a minimum of
economy in the handling of quantity at
. given time. Almost all of the product
Il Of value, the seeds making oil and oil
cake, and even the water in which the
stalks are stepped IL Of great service. It
h found to contain nine-tenths of the nu-
tritious matter of the plant, and when
poured out upon the field helps greatly
in restoring the soil. ~
Nevertheless, 90 great is the labor In
volved that fax cultivation in this coun-
try cannot be regarded as profitable
industry. It has had nearly three CEN
turies Of trial and has been fostered by
bounties and tariff until it should have