The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1896-01-17
THE CULTURE OF FLAX.
Results OF Careful Experiments Made
in Its Production.

in Its Production.
0. B. Barbo read paper on flax culture
as applied to his own county, Whatcom,
and as there has been much discussion re-
Gently tending to prove that this climate
is especially suitable for the success of
the flax industry, Mr.. Barbo's paper on the
subject attracted close attention. This
was how it read:
1t has been my duty as member of the
New Whatcom Board of Trade to investi-
gate flax culture. Of the fine fiber from
which is manufactured the higher numbers
of yarns and what is properly called linen,
not a pound is grown in this country; and
we import flax products for at least $751;
100000 every year. Flax can reach per-
lection in Europe only in certain regions
of limited area. The acreage there cannot
increase. The demand for flax products
has been and is constantly increasing. The
factories refuse orders for want of proper
raw material. The peculiar climate of the
prominent fax producing centers is strik-
ingly similar to the climate Puget
sound, and the knowledge of this first
prompted flax culture in Whatcom county.
In the spring of 1895 it was pointed out to
the New Whatcom board of trade that flax
had been grown eXperimentally in the coun-
ty for three years with fattering results.
That then a number of acres were being de-
voted to the plant, but that the farmers
generally showed no interest and that the
markets for flax were unknown. The board
then took the matter in hand and during the
summer discovered for it was discovery as
far as the flax producer was concerned)
the linen manufacturers in the United
States collected data from farmers grow
ing fax in the county, and procured men to
prepare the fiber according to the various
modes in Ireland. Sweden and Germany.
At the Northwest agricultural and indus
trial fair held in New Whatcom last Sep
TENDER special premiums were offered and
given for flax exhibits. One part of the
exhibition was a factory on small scale,
where flax straw by scutching, hacking
and spinning was converted into thread.
There were numerous exhibits of fax prod
uctS from the straw as pulled in the field
to the finished table cloth from the loom.
All this through the efforts of the board Of
trade: and at the fair everybody had to see
fax; flax was mostly the talk. and the
papers gave part of their columns to this
latest immigrant.
After the fair the board Of trade sent
samples of hacked line to all the factories
in the country The result of the summers
work is that today there are few farmers in
Whatcom county who are not interested in
fax and who are unwilling to give it trial.
The manufacturers, who few months ago
said they had seen no American flax fit for
their purposes now say of the samples sent
them: 1.-THE flax is similar to what we use
in the factory; it is equal to imported" and
request shipments of larger quantities, fer
which will be paid market prices. One fac
tory sent samples of the best imported fiber,
and our flax experts declare the fiber grown
in Whatcom county last year longer, equal
ly strong and has the same fine Silken touch
that flaxmen speak of.
The board of trade. therefore, feels iusti-
fed in stating that it has demonstrated to
the linen manufacturer and to our farmers
that Whatcom county can produce fax
fiber equal to any grown IN the world in
quality The soil and climate that has pro-
duced the rankest vegetation, the largest
trees of it's kind in the world, can also beat
the world as to quantity of flax. In Ire
land the average yield of fiber per acre is,
1 am told, 1,6G0 pounds In Whatcom county
the average is 1900 pounds. In Minnesota,
where flax is raised for seed alone, ten
bushels per acre is the average. In What
com county the average per acre was fif-
teen bushels when the plant was pulled be-
fore the seed was fully matured.
In Minnesota and the Dakotas, where the
straw is burned or otherwise destroyed,
the wheat is being replaced by flax. 1t pays
better In Ireland, where the seed until
lately has been entirely wasted. flax has
made the farmer prosperous and indepen-
dent And when in Whatcom county en-
each acre we can raise one-fourth more Of
fiber than in Ireland, and in addition save
seed one-half more than can be raised in
Minnesota, it ought to pay.
Fiber is worth at the factory from seven
c) to twenty-five (25) cents per pound, and
the finest quality even higher. AT "a price
below the average, say ten (10) cents per
pound, 1000 pounds of fiber will bring $500.
Seed is worth on an average $2.75 per bushel
for sowing purposes; for the oil mill, say
81. The first years crop from imported seed
is good for sowing; the second not. We
will call seed worth s1.S5 per .bushel, which
per acre means S27.72; total for fiber and
seed, $227.72
Eugene Bosse an experienced fax grower
for fiber and seed in the East, figures his
expenses per acre, including freight to fac
tory. at $40. A fax expert in Whatcom
/ estimates the cost per acre at $685.;
freight from New Whatcom to factory
about So total expense of $S5.25. leaving
a net profit per acre of Al.
This is the cost on the European plan.
While the fax grower in Europe may have
acquired greater skill and dexterity, and
the product today thus be superior to that
produced several thousand years ago, the
methods and processes of growing the
plant and preparing the fiber are exactly
the same today as were followed in the
| days of the Pharaohs. Every part of the
work, from the sowing of the seed until the
fiber is ready for the spinning mill, is done
by hand We must get the fax culture.
ike that of wheat and oats, Americanized;
that is. all the work must be done by ma