HEMP GRADING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3783, 30 January 1908, Page 4

HEMP GRADING.

Amendment Demanded. The Question of Strength. (N.Z. Times). There will probably not be found a flax-miller at the present day who failed to realise that the grading of his product is a good thing for himself and for the industry. And while the system instituted by the Department of agriculture has been of considerable benefit experience has proved that there are several directions in which it may be improved. In one point of quality a radical alteration is dei manded. This is the matter of strength of the fibre. When the purposes to which New Zealand hemp is put are considered, it is at once seen that strength is the prime market requirement, and yet the strength of the fibre is seldom given its right place in the grade ; some graders place a higher value on it than do others, while many graders practically ignore it. In saying that it is not intended to be conveyed that graders are not working up to the official standard ; the variation in opinion is due to the fact that in the arrangement of the grade points strength has not been awarded the position its importance demands. Thus we often see ‘ ‘ superior ’ ’ fibre a poorer article for a purpose where strength is a consideration than a parcel placed in a “common” grade. Of course, the true cause of this is the crude style of preparing tbe commercial fibre in vogue. Colour and freedom from vegetable matter are obtained at the expense of strength, and the former qualities are at present the essential requirements for the better grades. In this connection we consider the suggestion of Mr A. Siefert —that machines for testing the breaking strain should be at every grading store —an admirable one. Even where a grader has a true appreciation of strength and can consider it in his work (as far as the system will permit} he can only calculate in a rough and ready way. What is required is that the method of awarding points should be amended and strength being elevated to its right position in the system, a means should be provided whereby the grader may be able to exactly determine the true value of the article in the commercial world. Strength should be to hemp what flavour is to butter, and has flavour determines the grade into which a butter should go, so strength should decide the question in regard to hemp, given, of course, fair work in other features. Much is being made of the want of uniformity in the work of the graders, and while we think there is some ground for the criticism,Jwe consider there is altogether too much expected of the officials in their estimates of quality. The miller is often more responsible for variation in the grading of his produce than the official. It is only the exceptional miller who makes an attempt to classify his product, and the majority of the hemp the grader is called upon to judge is a conglomerate mass, probably being possible of assortment into three grades. It may happen that the examination hanks may disclose a quality only representative of 25 per cent, of the parcel, while the hanks happened 011 another occasion may be fully typical of the whole line. It is palpable that a grader would require to see every hank to say with absolute certainty the true value of the bulk of the hemp he examines. As it is, the judgment of an entire line is based on the quality of two or three hanks, which may be the, best in the parcel or may be the worst. The question ot providing sample hanks at the grading stores, also suggested by Mr Seifert, certainly deserves consideration, and it is gratifying in this connection, to know that the Secretary for Agriculture, Mr J. D. Ritchie, recognises that this would be an important means of bringing about great uniformity in grading between the different graders, and at the same time be of educative value to all concerned. The whole question of hemp grading demands some readjustment so that the Government designation of quality may be truly indicative of the value of the hemp from a commercial point of view.