The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-01-05
FUTURE OPPORTUNITY
OF THE WEST
OXFORD PROCESSES WHICH TRANSFORM FLAX STRAW INTO
FABRIC. F0RESHAD0W THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW
INDUSTRY. MONTANA SHOULD SHARE IN ENTERPRISE.

In the prodigal waste Of flax
straw. ten million tons of which. ac-
cording to the Department of asri-
culture are burned every year on the
farms of this country, there is
marked analogy between the posi-
| ton of many western farmers of to-
| day and the southern planter before
Eli Whitney evolved his cotton GIN
in 1893. Up to that time, cotton,
now king Of the worlds textile in
dustry, had little apparent value. as
flax straw now has on many farms.
! 1t took a whole day to separate the
seed from one pound OF the clean,
white staple, making it's cultivation
| for commercial uses an impractical
bic and expensive business enter
prise in which few planters dared
embark. So little cotton was raised
in the states south of Mason and
Dixon's line that he British Gus
tom S officials, tllinh;r,ss they were
being deceived by false invoices.
seized the first eight bales of it en-
tering Liverpool in 1881. ON the
ground that such a quantity could
have been raised in this country in
a single year 1t is difficult to con-
ceive his in the face of the figures
for This year, which Indicate IA har-
vest of approximately IL, 800 900
| bales.
To Whitney. the south owes its
present predoninance in this field.
His invenion aside from hel ping to
pay off the south's debts has enabled
it to develop an industry which to-
day produces IA product OF an aggre
gate annual value of $500, 900. 900
and has given Uncle sam S7,O00,
600 900 he best of il in the inter
nat ional balance of trade for 100
years.
We are the largest producers Of
t1ax, but singular as it may seem,
Russia, which is third in point of
flax growing Importance, supplies
the straw from which $50, 900, 200
worth of linen annually imported in
to his country is made in Ireland
and Scotland. There being no
commercial market for most of The
crop after it's seed has been extracted
Western Farmers: as rule, have
been forced to burn the straw in or
der to get rid of it,
As with the cotton gin and the
reaper. two inventions which have
contributed more than any other
factors in the upbuilling of the
prosperity the United States and
won for it its present world wide ag-
|ricultural pre-elninence, American
genius has solved the problem of how
to turn this waste flax straw into
profitable use. Like Whitney, who
was Massachusetts school teacher,
Benjamin Gushing Nudge, the dis
coverer OF the Oxford processes
| which will make commercially
available. in The manufacture of
! American linen, this herelofo val
ueless product of the western farm.
| is a native of New England. In
their economic effect on the linen
market of the world, he Oxford
processes, which transform the flax
into fabric in from one to two lays,
teat requiring from 90 to 80 week $
to accomplish abroad, are as impor-
tant in their relation to flax as was
Whitney's gin 10 cotton. They
hold oul to the western farmer the
promise of Il new source of revenue.
| commensurate in value with that of
the cotton gin and toreshatlow the
establishment Of new American
industry OF the first order, which,
experts believe, will some day wrest