CANADIAN FLAX.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1461, 19 October 1915, Page 3

CANADIAN FLAX.

RUSSIAN EXPERT ON THE PROSPECTS. A noted Russian flax expert now in Western Canada investigating the flax production of that part of the Dominion, writes to the “Canadian Miller and Cerealist” in response to an enquiry that “the possibilities here (in Canada) are just the same as they are in Russia. “The climate here I compare with that of three Russian provinces, Pskof, Ostrof, and Witebsk, while the soil is much more adapted to flax growing. These three Russian provinces yield a good quality of flax and seed, and are cultivated for both crops.” He says that some of tire samples shown him that had been dew-retted were of fair quality, but that the climate is too dry for dew-retting, and a much better commercial fibre can be produced by retting in water holes. He adds : “The interest ot the farmers here in growing flax lor both crops is much greater than I had expected to find.” This is the evidence ol a man who has reason to know the possibilities of the Canadian flax crop. He sees no reason why some one of the various methods of retting cannot be applied in the various districts in the West, where flax is grown in large quantities, and his estimate of the quality of the flax fibre produced suggests a very profitable field for the Western tanners. The matter is one of very considerable importance, not alone to the Canadian farmers, but also to the great linen industries of Scotland and Ulster, whose supplies of raw material were seriously threatened by the war.