Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-12-27

may ruin a seasons crop of flax, by
giving product that spinners will
not buy at any price. 1t IL this mat
ter of being able to have the straw
properly retted, after the farmer has
grown It, that has troubled me more
{ than all the other questions Of the
industry put together. | have had
many specimens pf flax sent me from
different parts of the country, in the
pasG few years, but ia very few in
stDnces has the retting been properly
done, and a harsh, unstable fiber was
the result. Even the samples sent by
Mr.. Mitchell are noJ what they should
haye been, judg ng from the straw
sent the. YOIr later samples | have
not seen though | would be very glad
TO haYe a series of them. l should
haYe asked for them long ago but that
ny time and thoughts were so occu-
pied with the Nashville Exposition,
thau my work has had to be neglected. |
DIR. Thornton's samples, from our
when | first saw his straw l knew
there was superb flax in it, but it took
Mr.. Frank Barbour to demonstrate
it. So this is the chief problem (of
course placing in another category the
discouragements Of having to tigh
prejudice and greed) and it is today
the stumbling block in the way of
establishing thellaX industry, Please
note that my remarks are made in re-
latiOn to the country at large, and do
not refer to any particular experiment
or section. In some instances failure
has come from trying to produce the
fibre by means Of what are called
quick-rctting processes. These may
be chemiral, or they may embOdy
the use Of hot water or steam, but
have never seen any flax made by such
processes that equalled mature"
retted fibre. l have every reason to
believe that two recent promising
flax fibre by "short cut" processes,
failed 'by false economy, with the
result that they were left with the en-
lire production on their hands "un- !
'alable," in consequence.
l would like to see some of your
)est scutched flax, and also some of
,he flax that M. Crawford examined, \
n order to compare it with the Frank
Barbour samples from our Washing &
on experiment. Send by express, y
collect, addressed Hon. James Wilson,
Secretary of agriculture, Washington,
D. q. "for Fiber Investigations. 4"
The box will then be delivered to me
BY the way, shall probably con-
rol about 1900 square feet of space in o
he Agricultural Hall CT the Omaha t
Exposition, in which am arranging =
o have a big flax or hemp exhibit, :
Doth machines and fiber products, AS Z
shall have a concession from The
authorities, there will be no expense
o exhibitors for space. Can't you
make an exhibit? There will be no Z
Expense for the construction of booths
S everything will be arranged in eX-
ibition boxes, measuring 2X5 feet NJ
UPRIGHT and inches deep, these to
e put up side by side on the walls.
But this is, now, too long letter. W
Iaye sent you 250 copies of farmers
No. 27 and will send more if n
GU can use them. AS special favor
o your association. the chief Of the
publication Division has strained
oint, and sends these to you in Of v
cial envelopes, which will save you
Ostage. We haye ordered 100 BUSH
Is of flax from Europe. Shall L send
ou a portion of it, when it comes?
L am, yours cordially,
CHAS. RICHARDS DODGE. v
pecial Agent, in Charge Of Fiber In
vestigatiOns.