Arizona republican., 1918-11-10
WARTIME NEED |S PROVIDED BY FLAX
 GROWN IN AMERICA

An interesting industry has grown up within the past few years through which American-grown flax is made useful in a conservation floor-cov- ering.
 Cotton and wool are too precious to be put to work as rugs; linen rug, well made, well dyed, well fin lshed is not only inexpensive, but at tractlve, and when the basis of it's manufacture is product of America soil, It IS of even more timely in- terest
 The story of this industry is q story of American resourcefulness and patience. European flax was for gen erations successfully made into linen. American flax has only been useful ! for seed, although it has been grown 1 in this country since the earliest Co., | lonlal settlement. Recent investiga- tlons have found uses of less import ance for the flax straw.
 But linen rugs are the successful | experiment that after seven years of | toll and trials, and the expenditure of one million dollars have made Ameri- can flax straw a valuable by-product to the flax crop and a source of profit to the farmer, instead of a complete l loss.
 1 The process of making thick, heavy, | soft rugs of exquisite quality from | the strands of flax to be found within the tiny casing of wood that makes the flax stalk is a sort of twentieth cen tury magic.
 It is magic of machinery. Into the factory, at Duluth, Minn., where the process has been perfected, comes car load after carload of baled flax straw. Out of that factory in which the magic | Of machinery has worked it's potent 1 charm, goes one carload of finished linen rugs for every ten that enter. Because of the fact that from the raw material to the finished linen yarn there is shrinkage of 90 per cent enormous quantities of flax straw are required, and in no other line of tex tile manufacturing is the proportion l oI raw material used so large in con- parison with the amount of the fin 1 ished fabric obtained
 The machinery in these war times is l operated by women, who thus free men for the war. Water power is used to save coal. And together with the conservation value of the product, the whole process of manufacture is well in line with the typical war time pro- gram for patriotic industry.
 The first process through which the flax passes is called "Retting.' The woody outer portion of the flax stalks Is by this process removed. The flax IS then treated with knives that cut from the strands the pieces of the out CT coating that may remain. This is called "Scutching"
 "Hackling," the final process of treating the raw flax, separates the line or long flax from the short and travelled tow.
 Flax for linen rugs is dyed in the rough, so that the color passes through every. particle of the mass. It is washed before and after being dyed. the first time to remove resinous sub stance, the second time to distribute the color evenly.
 It is next carded, and then spun into yarn. This yarn is the soft, strong filling yarn of the finished rug.
 The looms for the final weaving are very heavy and strong for the warp yarn into which the filling is woven is tough and powerful with a breaking strength of 40 pounds. Designed especially for use in weaving linen rugs, the looms are operated by wo- men-tWo to each loom.
 After the weaving the rugs are brushed with steel brushes on rollers, and the final measurement and in- spections are made.
 Stored away for shipment, the late ly developed product of American grown flax is finished linen rug, ar tistic, economical, conservation necessity
 At all the best dealers patriotic wo- men will find rugs that are made in America of an American grown crop developed by American skill and in time for national emergency.