THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1003, 1 October 1912, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

DISEASED LEAF GENERAL. Milling operations are now well under way. Although little export hemp has reached the grading stores, the lines to hand indicate that, while the milling is being conducted in a careful manner, the quality of the leaf available from some swamps is not good enough tor securing the highest grades. Diseased leaf is fairly general; and from reports to hand il would appear that millers will have considerable difficulty this season in securing any great quantity of the best raw/Material. This points to the necessity of very careful sorting if uniform lines are to be secured. In some cases it is probable the leaf will be so poor that it will uot pay to sort, but will have to be treated for inferior grades. bleaching irregular. The bleaching of some of the hemp to hand has been very irregular. Several parcels have been of a very poor colour —green and slightly discoloured. This, of course, quite prevents the fibre reaching a “good-fair” grade. Ot the fifteen hundred odd bales graded in Wellington last month, fully 82 per cent, were “goodlair,” an excellent percentage for the time of year. splendid market values. The better tone in the market has encouraged many Southland millers to resume operations. Over thirty mills will be in operation in that district this season. Everything points to its being the busiest season Southland has experienced for some years. The Auckland district will probably have a similar experience. Generally the 1912-13 hemp season will be one of exceptionol activity, and should present prices continue it must also prove a very prosperous one. FINE POSITION OF TOW. The most interesting feature of the market is the remarkable price tow is realising. This residual commodity has been quoted by cable at a price which but a few months ago was being paid tor the better qualities of phormium. The grading of tow, and the consequent improvement in get-up and packing, has brought about this much better appreciation of it. EXTRACTING PHOEMIUM-FIBRE. A new idea of removing the vegetation from phormium fibre is being perfected by the inventor, Mr Claydon, of Woolston, Christchurch, and has been named the Claydon-Maude scraper. It is constructed very much on the same lines as the ordinary stripper, but different in an all-importanc essential, in that it is a true scraping machine rather than a beating one. Not only does it effectively scrape off the vegetable covering of the fibre without any traces of injury ; but it can deal with much more fibre than the ordinary stripper, and this with considerably less power. The resultant fibre is in no way bruised, being a free continuous thread, while it is clean and unaffected by dye and gum, which the present process beats into the fibre. As a result of this clean scraping, there should not be the same time required to bleach the fibre as with the present method. A thorough washing will probably be all that will be required to ensure a good colour. Another advantage is that the work is reduced to a minimum, The patentee claims —and judging from the work done in several tests it is a lair estimate —that the machine will turn out one ton of fibre to six tons one hundredweight of green leaf. The above impressions were gained from witnessing trials conducted under distinctly crude conditions. As the effect was so good with a rough model, temporarily set up, the results under proper conditions should be very satisfactory. The distinguishing feature between the Claydon-Maude scraper and the stripper in vogue is that with the former the leaf is led into and between two drums, on each of which blunt pieces of steel on end — thick and j£iu. high, and set diagonally on the drums, as with a “stripper”—alternate with flat pieces of steel, 2^in. wide and %ia. deep, laid in the same direction. Both sides ot the blade are scraped at the same time, the upright piece of steel on the one drum striking the flat piece on the other, and vice versa. In testing the machine, I fed in from eight to thirteen blades at the one time, and even with the latter quantity the effect was good. There was no bruising, though some “ribs” were in evidence, owing to no “ribber” being provided in the machine. This with very poor power—an old 8 h.p. engine carrying 501 b. of steam, and drawing direct from its flywheel to the pulley of the stripper with an old qin. belt. A proper test of a well-built model of the machine is being made under practical conditions. —Mr W. H. Ferris, in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture.