The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1911-01-06
FLAX SRAy
rlay Be a Source of Income to
rlontana Farmers by Being
Made Into Linen

are burned every year on the farms
OF this country, there IS a marked
analogy between the position CT
many Western farmers OF to-day
and the southern planter before
Eli Whitney evolved his y7tton
gin IN 1898. Up to that time,
cotton, nov king OF the worlds
textile industry, had little appar
ent value, as flax straw now has
on many farms. took whole
day to separate the seed from one
pound OF the clean white staple,
making its cultivation for CONNER
cIal uses an Impracticable and ex.
pensIve bushes. enterprise in
which few planters dared to en-
ark So little cotton was raised
IN the states south of Mason and
DIxon's line that the British Gus.
tom Officials, thinking they were
beng deceived by false invoices,
seized the first eight bales OF 1t en-
terIng Liverpool IN 1884, on the
ground that such a quantity could
not have been raised in this coun-
try IN single year. IL IS difficult
TO conceive tins in the face of the
figures for this year, which ind.
cate harvest OF approximately
II, 500. 600 bales.
To Whitney, the South owes its
present performance in this field.
HIS invention aside from helping
TO pay off the South's debts has
enabled II To develop an industry
which topay produces a product
at an aggregate annual value OF
$500, 600, 600, and has gwen Uncle
Sam So, 900, 900, 600 the best oi
II III the international balance OF
trade Tor 100 years.
We are the largest producers OF
flax, hul singular as It may seem,
Russia, which rs third in point OF
iiaN growing Importance, supplies
the straw tom winch $50, 900, 900
worth ni linen Annually imported
into TINS county Is mad" III Ireland
and = orlaud. Turrr being no
CommrICIai market iuI most ui thu
cI"p after ITS seed has been cx-
uactcd Western Farmers, a. a
rule, have been forced To burn the
straw IN order to get md OF It.
As with the cotton Gun and the
reaper, two inventions which have
contributed more than any other
factors To the upbuilding of the
prosperity of the United States
and won lot its present world wide
agricultural pre-emiarnce, Amen.
can genus has solved the problem
oil how TO turn this waste flax straw
into profitable use. Like Whit.
ney, VINO was Massachusetts
School teacher, Benjamin Gushing
Mudgr, the disCoverer oil the Ok
ford processes which will make
commercially available, in the
manufacture OF American linen,
this heretofore valueless product
OF the western farm, Us a native OF
New England. In their economic
effect on the linen market of the
world, the Oxford processes, which
transform the flax into fabric IN
from one To two days, feat re-
curing from 40 to 80 weeks to
accomplish abroad, are as import.
ant in their relation TO flax as was
Whitney's gin to cotton. They
hold out to the western farmer the
promise OF a new source Of reve-
nue., commensurate in value with
that OF the cotton gin and fore.
shadow the establishment OF a new
American industry of the first
order, which, experts believe, will
some day wrest from England its
centuries old predominance Of the
linen field and rank in importance
with that of cotton.
In the evolution of this new
American industry Montana which
has not been conspicuous as a flax
growing state, although favored
i NTH /, sN,I .,l .I.u~.s. d,