THE HEMP INDUSTRY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2428, 13 May 1922, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY

DISEASE IN FLAX. • i A Manawatu miller, whose life’s experience is gained in his extensive flax swamps near Foxton, banks upon that, practical experience rather than rely upon the theories of experts or the experimental philosophies of scientists (says the M. D. Times). He declares, in, effect, that there is no remedy found, and there never will be, for yellow lent', or bacteria, because all disease is incurable after death. Flax in most areas is simply dying of' starvation or blood-letting. Remedy, there is none; but preventive is another matter, and its nature is obvious: manure freely, or cease cutting for a long period, perhaps ten years. 'These are costly, as are most good things of commerce. With nature it is quite different, even in respect to cost. The bounteous river with its countless tons of fertile sill is the only hope of prolonged life for our flax supply. This, too, is expensive and risky: expensive is the building of banks to catch the silt deposited in required depths; risky because of damage to adjoining areas on both sides of the river. In a ton of hemp the soil yields but a small/fraction, the sunlight and the atmosphere give the bulk of the weight; but it is in the carbon and other elements when returned to the soil as decayed vegetable -matter,' which impart the necessary fertility. This we remove, to eventually-enrich the soil of England, at the rate of about four tons per acre:annually. The leaf of the growing plant if-L the only means by which, directly, or indirectly, the elements of the atmosphere can be i*estored to the soil, and these in turn form the very life-blood of existence ifor that, iplant. If one desires to find for himself the exact proportions of a. ton. of fibre which were taken from the soil and from the air

respectively, one should burn it, weigh the residue, and all one may credit of the earth is what one may restore to if, about ten pounds of ash. The balance of the 2,2401b5. goes back into the air, whence it came. There is no remedy for starvation but food. This question reminds us that near Te Teko the Maoris cultivated and highly improved the quality of the flax, which they used for makng of the Ivaitaka, a cloak of very finest texture. The Government should now arrest the process of depletion and deterioration by similar planting and improving. It is stated that their experiments in this direction are a “failure.” There"" are still available a number of old Maori planters of flax who do not know such a word.