FLAX CULTIVATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2758, 15 July 1924, Page 2

FLAX CULTIVATION.

EXPERIMENT ON HAURAKI PLAINS.

"BETTER THAN DAIRYING/' An experiment in the cultivation of New Zealand flax is about to bo begun on deep peat land on the Hauraki Plains, and if success is achieved the flax industry should enter noon a new era (says the Am-kbr- | correspondent of the Dominion:. The Lands Department has allotted to Air G. Smerle who is a botanist, a- well as a praefieal authority up on flax, an area of 370 acres of peat land at Kailiere, (dose to the Pialco River, on condition that lie plants it in phormium. Tie is to make his own arrangements for- milling the leaf. The area, owing to (lie depih of the peat and the fact that the (day bed dips so low, that drainage tinder ordinary methods is not prac-ticable,-is not suitable for dairying and if Mr Smerle is able*lo prove his contention that by selection, cultivation. and improved methods of cutting, flax-growing gives a great-

er return than dairying, there is little doubt that the industry will receive a tremendous impetus. At the very'least, the problem of deep peat country will he solved. It is Mr Smerle’s opinion however, that on peat land the fibre content of the leaf is lower than that of leaf grown un substantial soil, lmt he also is <onvinced that by the use of proper manures that this can he readily corrected. Mr Smerle, who lias wide European experience, first became associated with the flax industry in New Zealand when he was employed by Manawatii millers who received a Government subsidy to investigate (lie yellow leaf disease. His observations appeared to indicate tlml the trouble was partly due to the fad that through regular, ruthless < utting the plants had become impoverished, and lmd small power of resistance against disease. He then developed his theory of side leaf cutting, by which the mature leaves are cut every year im /(♦id of every leaf being cut away every three or four years. From a practical demonstration he inis shown that not onlv does this method of cutting

conserve the vitality of plants, hut also increases rhe yield, for it eliminates the usual waste through some of the outer leaves dying before the general cut is due, and also results in cutting leaves which give tin.- maximum return of fibre. It is obvious, of course, that where all the vunig leaves are cut the proportion of fibre to waste is less than where only mature leaves are taken. As to the cultivation .of selected plants. Mr Smerle states that the iibre Geld varies from 2.5 to 22.2 per i-eri!. of the total hulk of leaf aeenrdimr to variety, of which there are many, lienee, lie argues that the best \ arioties mnsi he cultivated, and he adds that the history .of scientific agriculture shows that se-|(i-iillli and cultivation always realt in improvement. He instances il.r potato, which has been developed from a very inferior wild plant, also maize and every other grain and fruit.

Another point he emphasises is Hint there is yet no use in New Zealand of phormium tenax fibre for

anything but cordage and rope, yet microscopical examination shows that every libro is composed of from 120 to 500 strands, and therefore there are possibilities of use of these ultimate libres in the nuumfae--1 arc of textiles when a means is found of separating them. This, lie -tales, is done in Japan to-day. Mr Smerle says that he has delinitely proved that by side leaf cut - ting a return of 15 tons of green leaf

;n. acre can lie obtained every year from swamp land, where cattle are occasionally grazed. This will yield two tons of tibre and two tons of libi t* a year from every acre will give a return that no dairy farmer ever ,in allied of. At reeent values ha made a comparison with the return from wild flax completely cut every four years, with the return of an expert dairy farmer. The profit on liax, he says, was equal to £l3 an acre a year. The dairy farmer's own figures showed a profit of £3 9/- an acre annually.

At the present stage it would be unwise to accept these figures without making allowances for market and manufacturing exigencies, tire risks and other considerations, possibly not allowed for, but they cannot lie dismissed. Air Siuerle believes that, on the llauraki Plains settlers might combine liax growing with dairying, a group establishing co-operative strippers to deal with iketr tlax just as they establish dairy factories to deal with their butter-fat.