Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1005. FLAX GROWING POSSIBILITIES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3509, 13 April 1905, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1005. FLAX GROWING POSSIBILITIES

-CIn a recent issue the " Tirnaru Herald ” speculates on the advisableness of systematic cultivation of phormiam lenax on patches of land such as river beds, swamp margins, damp hollows, and broken gullies which could be more profitably applied to this than to any other purpose. Mr John Holmes, well-known in Connection with the flax trade, in a talk with a " Herald ” man, says that some people in the North Island are doing a little in the way of cultivating flax, and the incidental cultivation which most people have seen, in the shape of flax growing on the soil thrown out of ditches, proves that cultivation produces a larger plant, especially as to the time required by the plant to expand into a bush ; but the royalties paidjfer good swamp flax in the North Island show that a flax covered swamp is as good as a dairy farm. Mr Holmes states that the flax can be cut every three years, and the subsequent cuttings yield a better fibre than the first. The average yield in Manawatu is perhaps 25 tons per acre; but as much as 40 tons per acre have been got. And xos per ton is a not uncommon royalty, while as much as 30s per ton has been paid. An average of 3o tons per acre, at xos per ton, with a cutting every three years, means a return 0$ £3 6s 8d per UCi'e per annum for royalty. A small landowner could of course add to this wages for cutting, and remuneration for carting. To make a flax plantation means some outlay in labour at the outset, but once well established on suitable sod flak seems to be everlasting. There is an inexhaV.ilible demand for the fibre, and the milling industry is a valuable one, affording employment for men all the year round, and it requires but a moderate amount of capital. Mr Holmes suggests that the importance of the industry would justify the Government in appointing a competent man to go round the colony and instruct flax-millers iiow to improve their methods of working. As a buyer of fibre he has visited a great many mills, and found not a few of them being worked in a very rough and ready way by men who have not had experience in well-managed mills. “It will be a curious instance of the irony of fate,’’says the "Herald,” “if we see the farmers of Canterbury presently planting the flax which they so industriously grubbed up and destroyed some years ago.” In this district also, which may be termed the centre of the industry in New Zealand, millers and owners of flax areas would do well to cultivate the plant and so arrange the cutting as to secure a continuous supply.