Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-24
FLAX GROWN FOR LINEN.
There b No Reason why Its Cultivate
Should Not he Profitable In This Country.


Should Not be Profitable In This Country.
TINE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE rs
L anxious to encourage the cultivation of
fax In this country. Secretary Rusk is Of the
opinion that the industry might be very profit
ably pursued by American farmers generally
Special Agent Charles Richards Dodge. who has
been recently engaged in studying the subject,
had some very interesting things to say about
it yesterday in conversation with writer for
The STAR. Said he:
up to forty years ago or 90 FAX was grown
all over the United States 1t was cultivated only
in . small way. 70 be sure, by farmers chiefly
for their own use and was spun and woven by
some member of each household l saw this
summer some good fax grown twenty years
ago by farmer up among the hills Of New
Hampshire, and IN rambling over one of these
abandoned farms that we hear 90 much about
nowadays, in the same state, found in the
garrett Of the tumble-down farm house the rem
nant OF one of these household looms. In some
parts Of the United States a little household
linen is still made, and am sure some could
be found in the Virginias made in this year of
our Lord 1891"
why was this manufacture discontin ued?"
WHY II WAS DISCONTINUED
"Weli, there are several reasons. The inven-
ton OF the cotton gin SO cheapened cotto n
production that this staple began to be substi.
tuted. coming more and more into use and the
culture for home spinning fell off. Then the
change from household manufacture to the
central linen mill system made further inroads
upon the culture. The war period had some
thing to do with il and tariff tinkering some-
thing more, for at the close Of the war when
there was a very good beginning for a profita-
BILE max industry, the tariff was SO adjusted on
other hbers that it discriminated against home
grown max and many establishments went IN
der We have lost our position in fax manu-
featuring and now it is hard to regain il.
Yes there area few mills in the United States,
but they are either man ufacturing such coarse
goods as crash and other toweling or ,flas
threads and fine cordage. At present these
mills receive the bulk of their supply of the raw
material from Canade and from Europe. The
largest amount possibly comes from Russia, the
Russian fax being similar TO that produced in
| this country for manufacture forty or fifty
years ago. The best fax comes from Belgium
| and is known As Courtrai fax, so named from
| the interesting town of Courtrai. in Flanders
| which Is the center of the industry. This 10 q
| creamy fax. which is rettsd in a dirty, sluggish
| stream known as the River Lys, it
| waters being something the color OF crude
petroleum and its stencil in the fax season
| something to remember longer than the
Courtral cathedral chimes, assure you. The
bulk OF this fax goes to Ireland and much OF
the Irish linen is made from it, as the Irish fla Z
| Is inferior TO il and the FAX industry declining
| Dutch nsx. Irish fax and some of the Belgian
and German fax is retted in pools or reservoirs
dug In the ground, much of the Russian being
retted on the ground by the dews and rain.
ALL FLAX HAS To Be RErrKD.
'Of course all fax has to be retted, that il,
| subjected to fermentation for time, say from
nve days to two weeks, to soften the gums
which hold the fiber to the woody matter OF
| the straw and which hold the filaments TO
gether. First the seed is planted, the soil hav-
ing been brought almost to the condition of
garden soil. and made very fertile. Then the
seed is sown broadcast. all weeds kept out, and
when mature, and the slender straw begins to
turn yellow and the seed Capsules to turn
brown. the plants are pulled ur by their roots,
stacked in little bundles and cured, roots aud
all Then 1t is spread over q meadow, placed
IN pools or III running stream as have de-
| scribed, to undergo the rotting or rstting'
process, as it is called When Just right it is
dried again, and is then ready for cleaning.
Here the farmers work ends. The straw is now
run through a fax brake, or mammoth crimp-
ing machine, the futed rollers of which break
the woody portion into short lengths without
injuring the fiber. This broken straw is then
'scutched, that ia, subjected to beating blades.
which whip out all the little fragments of wood,
leaving the fiber long and clean. This is
dressed by being drawn over iron teeth or
long steel needles set closely together which
comb out all the short and broken or tangled
fiber, which is called tow The second comb
ing is called double dressing,' and the fiber
in this stage is very beautiful, almost resem-
bling human hair, it is 30 soft and glossy. The
Courtrai fax would readily suggest blonde
tresses-
FLAX GROWN FOR SEED.
II should have mentioned perhaps that in
most countries tho fax straw is threshed soon
hov tS,,rvt ,c A,
to the oil mills. Over million acres Of fax
are grown in this country for seed alone, the
fiber being wasted. The fiber is very coarse.
however, because the seed lie sown thinly. SO
that the plants will branch. The more seed
sown to the acre the finer the straw and the
better the fiber. During the past year an effort
has been made to prevent some of this waste
by instr ucting farmers to grow small plants for
both seed and fiber, looking toward the re-es-
adjustment OF the dax industry in the north
west.
There is somo fax from Wisconsin. Score
tary Rusk s state, which is almost as good as the
Courtrai FAX. 1t was grown by Belgian fax
farmer now citizen of the United States
There Ia some nice straw grown this season in
Connecticut There is some from Michigan
and Minnesota-and this was grown in New
York. All weil-grown straw, as you see, and
capable OF producing good fiber The depart
ment sent out a quantity of imported seed last
these experiments are all reported the iuforma-
ton will be published. OF course some of the
straw will be cleaned AMI the fiber carried
through to the manufactured fabric. A fax mill
Is a very interesting place. l have been through
all of the principal ones in this country this sum
mer and have secured many valuable samples
for we must be able to tell the western farmers
who are trying to grow fax what kind of fiber
will be in demand by the manufacturer"
ANCIENT CULTIVATION.
The cultivation of faxseed in Europe and the
spinning and weaving by the most primitive
means of fine linen would seem to antedate
history. As far back as the stone age the in
habitants Of Switzerland and of Lombardy, liy-
ing in huts and feeding upon roots and acorns.
were familiar in a crude way with this industry
1t is in evidence also that before the appearance
Of the Aryans west of the Ural mountains the
Firms cultivated fax to . considerable degree
in the north of Europe. Historical memoirs
prove that the ancient Hindoos and Egyptians
produced flax, the former for its seed, the lat
ter, about 5000 Years ago, for its thread.
The Egyptian linen must have reached very
high degree of perfection, as Herodotus, in
enumerating the presents made to the EN-
peror Amasis of Athens speaks of garments
made of fax single thread of which consisted
OF $50 finer threads According to Piiny, Taci-
tus and other Roman authors. the cultivation
of fax fourished in northern Italy, Gaul, Ger
many and with the ancient Firms and more es-
pecially with the Celts early settled in Ireland.
Poetry and Ornithology.
From the London Daily News.