The Worthington advance., 1899-12-22
ALL ABOUT FLAX.

ALL ABOUT FLAX.
First Annual Meeting Of the Ma
tional Flax Association.
The Meeting was One Of instruction and
Profit. Many Interesting Papers
Were Read. The Government
Asked to Experiment..
The first annual convention of the
National Flax, Hemp and Ramie Ar
ISOLATION was convened in deLendre-
cie's hall at Fargo, Dec. IA, the hall be-
Ing well filed with prominent farmera
from every part of the state and
northern Minnesota.
In the absence of President ]. Ster-
ling Morton, the meeting was called
to order by the secretary, Henrietta
C. Olberg, of Albert Lea, Minn.,
Bishop Edsall, of the Episcopal
church, invoked the divine blessing on
the deliberations of the convention,
and Mayor johnson delivered an ad-
dress of welcome.
The meeting was then adjourned
until afternoon, the session being
called to order by Mayor johnson,
who stated that on account of some
of the members who were on the
program being absent some changes
would be necessary, and he introduced
Prof. Sheppard, of the Agricultural
college, who presented an able paper
on ''Growing Flax for Seed." A gen.
eral discussion followed the presenta-
ton of the paper and a great deal of
interest was manifested in the sub
ject.
Wednesday, Mrs. Henrietta c. o.
berg, the secretary, read a paper pre-:
pared by j. I. Reynolds, of Kansas
City, No., that gentleman not being
able to be present. The subject was
"Flax Fibre and Its Uses." Mr..
Reynolds has made a careful study of
the subject, and thinks that while the
farmers are receiving from $20,O0O,-
900 to $3O,00O,000 annually for the seed
they had just as well be receiving
from $4,000, 900 to $6O,0O0,OO0 for the
products of the straw which are now
being thrown away. From the straw
could be made bags, rope, paper and
twine, in addition to the linen. On
the bags alone Mr.. Reynolds thought
the value would be a million dollars
annually, and cited their superiority
over the jute and cotton bags, espe-
cially for handling smaller seeds like
clover, timothy and millet. Rope
could be secured that would last five
times as long as Manila rope. Millions
of dollars were being annually thrown
away in linen, and Mr.. Reynolds want
ed to see the government offer prices
for new machinery and inventions for
the use of manufacture of fibre, and
methods for pulling the flax from the
ground, so that the lower half and the
most valuable part of the stalk-for
fax purposes-could be saved.
H. U. Thomas, secretary of agricul-
ture for North Dakota, read an inter-
esting statistical article on flax cul-
ture, giving the figures, showing the
acreage in the different states, with
especial emphasis on North Dakota,
where he thought at least 10000 acres
were in cultivation this year, an in
crease of about so per cent over '9S.
He thought the conditions in North
Dakota and northern Minnesota were
as nearly ideal as possible for the
growth of flax.
Then came DR.. T. C. Hinebauch, of
Tower City, N. D., who read an inter-
esting paper on "Flax Breaking and
Reducing Machinery of T.. C. Smith,
of Heron Lake, Minn." This machine
is on the principle of a threshing ma
chine and can be moved from field to
field, and used at tn l.: flax stacks after
the threshing is done. It is powerful
enough to reduce the fibre consider
ably and bale it for shipment.
Hon. Thomas Harrison, of Blanch-
ard, spoke on the growth of fax and
wheat together and staed that piece
of wheat had been sown one year
upon which a poor stand was Sc.
cured. The result was mixed crop
which gave splendid yield of each.
He gave figures to prove the success
of the crop and thought the best re-
suits were obtained from low land. One
interesting point brought out was the
value of the mixed straw for feeding
purposes, which he claimed was much
better than wheat straw alone. The
stock liked it better and there seemed
more nourishment.
Much discussion followed upon the
subject and it seemed that for low
land the experiment was success
Again this attention was directed
to the display of the products of fax
fibre which consisted of the straw,
now and the fibre in the first and
more reduced stages before being
woven into cloth. All grades of bur-
lap up to the finest and most delicate
linens were to be seen as an illustra-
tion of the possibilities of it's growth,
and great interest on these subjects
was manifest.
In the evening Chairman johnson
called the evening session to order.
After few selections by the orches.
ira, Prof. H. L. Rolley, of the Agricul.
tural college, was substituted in the
place of an absent speaker and gave
a short, but very interesting talk on
the characteristics of the flax plant
and lent life to his subject by the
use of illustrations. He spoke of the
different stages in the growth of the
plant and the effect of the weather
upon it in the respective stages. AS
to the possibilities of disease the pro.
fessor stated that they were few, the