THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 384, 12 May 1908, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Increasing the Value of Flax. Dr L. Cockayne, F.L.S., has been appointed by the Government to superintend experiments in plant-breeding on the Government agricultural stations. In conversation with a Dominion representative the other day, he gave some particulars of the first series of those experiments which he will direct. Their object is to improve the commercial qualities of New Zealand flax. A NECLECTED IT,ANT.

The humble flax plant is an asset of increasing value to New Zealand. The export of phormium fibre during 1906 was valued at ,£776,106, as against £195,728 for 1901, and ,£32,985 for 1896. But New Zealand phormium at present is far from being a perfect plant for flax-milling purposes. It is, in fact, probably the only example of a wild plant used commercially on a large scale. Other plants so used are the result of years of careful experiment. The neglected phormium tenax is now to be taken in hand, and Dr Cockayne will visit in a few weeks’ time the Government experiment stations in the Auckland province, in connection with a series of experiments whose object is the production of forms of flax of a higher economic value than any now existing. He will arrange with the flax-growing experts so that the work shall be conducted on strictly modern scientific lines, accurate records being made in order that future investigators may continue the work exactly where it is left off. At the present time Dr Cockayne states nothing is accurately known about the variations of phormium. In fact, the extremely important point as to whether the wellmarked variations come true from seed, is quite unsettled. Experiments will also be conducted in regard to the action of definite soils upon fibre-production and the like, and Dr Cockayne hopes to publish in the spring an up-to-date account of phormium tenax dealing with its wild and cultivated varieties, and its variations under natural conditions. The account should form a valuable basis for future workA HOPEFUL SCHEME. It is hoped, as the result of the experiments, to increase the output of flax, and at the same time increase the quality of the fibre. Such improvements have been successfully performed in the case of many other plants, and there is every reason to hope that the flax plant also can be very much enhanced in value, since it possesses the essential qualification for improvement, namely, extreme variability both in the wild and cultivated states, though the variations themselves have never been studied accurately and scientifically. POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION. At a meeting of the Philosophical Society quite recently, Dr Cockayne announced, in the course of a discussion on Mendel’s law, that the Agricultural Department was going to give him control of a considerable number of experiments in plant-breeding at agricultural stations. One of the first was in regard to phormium tenax, and it was necessary at the outset to show whether the phormium consisted of a large number of elementary species or not. If it were so composed, the improvement of that very important plant would be a matter of a very short time.

Mr A. Hamilton, speaking later, said that in the improvement of flax there were many other points to be considered besides the fibre. Among them was the elimination of the gnm. He was sure that the Society would be glad to hear Dr Cockayne’s intimation that the Government had undertaken, and had given him the superintendence of these experiments.