The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-27
FLAX CULTURE IN MONTANA.

The Wild flax 10 Indigenous 10 Moh-
tana and grows lux~uriantly everywhere,
even up the mountain slopes. Some OF
these days attention will be paid to its
cultivation and our farmers will find a
new source Of industry and profit open
to them. The possibilities of this in
dustry are 30 great that it is u wonder
they have been so long neglected.
Consul Thomas Heenan, at Odessa,
writes to the state department that the
flax fiber raised in Russia is manufac-
tured into Sao,OOO,OO0 worth of goods
annually. The linseed oil is worth
S5,oO0,OOO, and the oil cake sells for
s oo.50O,0O Furthermore, Russia has
100000 bushels OF seed to export.
These are the results Of cropping $780,
600 acres. Mr.. Heenan says:
THE possibilities which the cultiva-
tion of the flax fiber offers to American
farmers is equaled only by the surprise
that such possibilities have thus far
been neglected, if, indeed, they were not
altogether unknown. The seed has been
cultivated with more Oh less satisfactory
results in the United States; but the
fiber, practically, not at all. The eli
mate, soil and conditions generally
throughout the northwest are very
favorable to the cultivation OF the flax
fiber as we'll as the seed. After a short
experience as to the primary manipula-
ton or handling of the flax fiber our
farmers would produce flax which would
compare favorably with the best vari-
cites of the fiber. It seems strange that
a practical people like ourselves should
for years have been satisfied to cultivate
flax for the seed at a value of about S15
per acre, and at the same time allow
600 pounds of flax fiber per acre to rot
on the ground, this flax fiber having a
value, after being manipulated, of SlS6
per ton. Familiar as our farmers are
with the workings of improved and ex-
pensive agricultural machinery, and the
latest developments of the human in
tellect as applied to the soil, they may
always learn something by watching the
working of crude ideas as seen in a
primitive and unsophisticated people.
The unsatisfactory condition of the
farmers in our northwestern states,
which is certainly due to the %overculti-
walton of wheat, with it's yearly decreas-
ing yield per acre, renders it all the
more important that a speedy means be
found to relieve a condition of things
which affects the material interest and
welfare of the great majority of the
people Of the United States. Such a
means exists in the fiax-plant. It will
not only enable the farmers to make
their own linen, rope, thread, crash
toweling, oil cake and much besides, but
will cause new industries to be estab-
lished throughout the country in dis
tricts where the advent would be both
profitable and new. There should be a
general and persistent effort made to
encourage the cultivation of the flax
fiber throughout the United States,
with the view of establishing factories
for the manufacture of Irvine OF textile,
and if this report should develop a
proper interest in 81 important a sub
ject, the result cannot fail to be salts
factory"
The sugar beet and flax, and the prod
ucts manufactured from them, will at
no distant day contribute enormously to
Montana's wealth and prosperity.