The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1888. EUROPEAN FLAX.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1803, 31 March 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1888. EUROPEAN FLAX.

We observe that the Hon the Minister for Education, Mr Fisher, takes an interest m other matters than those which specially appertain to the particular department over which he presides, and has forwarded to one ot our Invercargill contemporaries are excerpt from a Wellington paper, with an intimation ot his wish that the attention of farmers m Southland should be called to the subject treated of therein, viz., the cultivation m New Zealand of Linum usitatissimum — the European flax r The request was of course complied with, but as not only the farmers of Southland, but those of Canterbury are interested m the question of how to deal with their land to advantage we, m our turn, also call attention to the subject. The extract m question is from a letter to an Auckland paper (the " New Zealand Herald ") from its Wellington correspondent, who mentions the great interest taken by Mr Fisher m the subject of flax cultivation, and states that that gentleman has had an extensive I and interesting correspondence on the \ subject, some of which he (the the writer 'of the letter) has been permitted to peruse. He goes on to say : — " One large manufacturing firm m Scotland (Dalgleish and Co. Dundee), estimates that £10,000,000 sterling goes to Eussia every year for the purchase of flax; What is to prevent a large proportion of this coming to New Zealand? The answer is : Nothing but the indifference of the New Zealand agriculturists to the cultivation of this crop. Fifty years ago every English, Scottish, and Irish farmer grew some flax for making linen for his own household. 1 The linen manufrcturers of the North of 1 Ireland had for a time a mine of wealth m the general cultivation of the flax plant. Flax yields two valuable crops, after which there is a large residuum for feeding and fattening cattle — (1) Linseed, yielding from £10 to £12 per acre ; (2) the flax stalk, worth from £4 to £6 per acre ; and (3) bolls or capsules of the seed, which cattle are very fond of. An acre of flax will yield 20 bushels of linseed. The Dundee firm above named have offered seed enough gratis to crop a thousand acres, and £4 per ton for the straw, leaving the linseed to the growers. A farmer near Belfast last year refused £20 for the growth of an acre, another farmer m the same district got £60 for a crop of four acres. The Hon Mr Fisher asks why this crop should not be grown here if it will be profitable. Mr Orr Wallace, of Belfast, haa invented a scutching machine which releases the whole of the fibre without waste. This machine is somewhat expensive (£105) but one of them would serve a whole district. It is, moreover, a crop which can be sown and ! gathered by children. Every suggestion of a practical nature is valuable, and this one coming from a member of the Government, might be turned by the agriculturists of New Zealand to profitable account. The figures given above are authentic, and should encourage some enterprise that would have the effect of determining the actual result of engaging m it." Our Southland contemporary good-naturedly chaffs Mr Fisher on the prominence given m the foregoing to the merits of the Wallace scutcher, though it does not. for a moment accuse him of a wish to exploit that particular machine, but gives him the credit to which he is entitled for seeking to point out to farmers a way m which they may turn their land to good account. Tho matter is certainly worth consideration m these days of low prices for grain and meat, the more especially that as regards grain m particular there appears at present to be little or no prospect of more satisfactory rates being obtainable.