The Glasgow courier., 1916-01-07

AOSASIaH1 SCNASSoAyS NNA o. O' f. 4NSE0-
dith, treasurer.
FLAX STRAW VALUABLE ASSET
Approximately 100000 tons Of
flax straw are burned or permitted to
go to waste each year on American
farms. At the same time the country
is annually importing large quantities
of flax waste from foreign countries
for paper and board manufacture,
The inconsistency of this situation
has lead specialists of the United
States department of agriculture to
investigate the feasibility of using
home grown straw in the paper and
fiber board industry.
The results of this investigation
have just been published in bulletin
/ No. 322. At the present time about
1900 600 acres are devoted to the
raising Of flax, chiefly in North Da-
kota, Minnesota, South Dakota and
Montana. The flax is grown primar-
lily for the seed from which linseed,
oil is manufactured. The annual
crop amounts to about 20,O00,00O
bushels of seed and is valued at ap-
proximately $33,000,000.
The crop also yields approximately
100000 tons Of straw, but of this
only about 100000 tons are put to any
profitable use. The utilization of the
remaining 1,400,00o tons, says the
bulletin, would be Of immense eco
nomic Importance since its paper
| producing possibilities are equal to
the annual production of wrapping
paper and more than double the an
nual production of writing paper in
! the United States. Its sale, it is esti-
mated, would represent an added rev.
enue to the farmers of about $5,OOO,-
900 annually. This additional profit
would mean very powerful factor in
maintaining the flax crop in our agri-
cultural system and would probably
result in the establishment of paper
manufacturing industries in sections
where there are none at present. It
would also aid in making our paper
industry more Independent Of foreign
raw paper making materials and
would produce a keener realization
of the latent value of some of our
enormous crop wastes.
Flax in this country has always
been pioneer crop, being sown on
the upturned virgin soil. If planted
again on the same land it does not
do so we'll unless other crops have in
tervened and the land has been put
back into grass. The old idea, how
ever, that the flax crop is very ex-
hausting to soil fertility is an err
roneous one. AS matter of fact,
flax does not tax soil fertility as much
as either wheat or oats.
The Investigations of the govern
ment specialists have already been
carried to point where it has been
demonstrated that domestic flax tow
can be used in the manufacture of
fiber counter boards which are now
used largely in shoe factories. In
cooperative commercial tests, coun-
ter boards made of this domestic flax
tow have been actually sold to the
trade at the regular price for counter
boards, viz: to 5h cents a pound.
The demand for flax tow for this
purpose, if fully developed, would
open market for about 10000, 900
tons of straw annually. This, Of
course, is a very small quantity COM
pared with the total supply available.
- is prorosed, therefore, to extend
the investigation into the manufac-
ture OF wrapping and writing papers.
Should domestic flax straw for writ
ing paper be able to compete success
fully with foreign material, market
FOR between 200 900 and 10000 tons
Of straw per annum would be opened
and an additional revenue obtained
for the flax region of about $780,
600 per year. At the present time
over $2,OO0,00O worth of rags is be-
ing imported each year into the
country, chiefly for use in the man.
ufacture OF writing paper. Similar
possibilities are offered by the wrap
ping and paper bag industries.