THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3562, 13 November 1926, Page 2

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

LECTURE BY MR. A. SEIFERT,

At the invitation of the Foxton Chamber of Commerce, Mr A. Seifert, of Palmerston N., gave a lecture on the flaxmilling industry in the Masonic Hall last night. There was a fair but very representative attendance, presided over by Mr J. K, Hornblow, President Chamber of Commerce. Mr Hornblow, in-introducing the speaker, said thatf the name of Seifert was well-known in the flaxmilling world. Foxton was essentially a flaxmilling centre and he was. sure the lecture would prove highly interesting to all present. Mr Seifert said he had hesitated before agreeing to accept the Chamber’s invitation to deliver a lecture on the industry locally because he felt that the'people of Foxton knew more about .flax than other centres. It was after thinking the matter over, however; that he saw that it was possible to deal with questions outside ordinary milling operations and he had decided to confine himself to the world’s requirements of fibre, how this fibre was produced, the labour conditions and his visits to cordage factories in America and Australia. Lastly he would touch on what he considered the most important side of any industry, that of the supply of raw material. It could not be emphasised too strongly that every industry depended upon the raw material it had to manufacture. If the supply was insufficient or the quality bad, then the manufacturing side could not be successful. NEW ZEALAND’S COMPETITORS.

The two most important competitors New Zealand had to deal with in regard to the hemp industry were Manila and Sisal. .The Manila fibre is produced in the Phillipian Islands and is grown there in rich volcanic soil, the plant being a kind of banana tree which produces a useless fruit, said Mr Seifert. In order to extract the fibre the tree was cut down and the fibre was found on the innerskin of each layer. The tree itself, was made up of layers and very much resembled a leak. The outer layer produced the coarsest fibre with the worst colour and the inner layers fine fibre of a beautiful colour. The percentage of fibre to the total weight of the tree was 1.35, that is one and a-third tons of fibre to 100 tons of the raw material. On account of such a small percentage of fibre, great difficulty was found in making machines to dress the fibre, because the machine would have to be taken to the tree instead of the raw material being brought to the mill as is the case in New Zealand. The Manila fibre is of a very high quality, and stands salt water, better than other fibres. It is also very strong and all the fibre lie saw in cordage factories was well dressed and very carefully classed. Manila, however, had never been grown successfully outside the Phillipian Islands. THE SISAL PLANT. A very large amount of sisal fibre was produced but in appearance and nature it is entirely different from the Manila plant. The sisal is an aloe and resembles what we call the century plant. It has large, heavy, Meshy leaves, which produce about 3if per cent of fibre. It grows in the tropics where the climate is dry. The largest amount of fibre is produced in Yucatan, Mexico. The plant is a native of Central America but has been introduced for fibre producing purposes to other parts of the world, and was now being grown in Java, Sumatra, and East Africa. The quality of the fibre produced in these places was superior to (hat grown in Mexico. On account of the low percentage of fibre produced by the Manila and sisal plants as compared with the New Zealand product, there was considerable labour in handling the raw material. Manila had to be planted with shelter trees to ’protect it from the wind and was subject to damage by cyclones. Sisal was planted in cultivated ground, the weeds kept down, and after the plant matured, it produced millable leaves in from four to seven years. The plant then died, but before doing so, sent up a, seed stalk. After a time all sisal) plantations had to-be replanted. The milling process was easier than burs, however, because there was no difficulty with the bleaching and drying of the fibre. As soon as the fibre came from the decorticating machine, it was hung on small poles and carried out to the sun to dry, and, in the course of three or four hours* could be taken into the scutcher shed, where it was scutched, classed and pressed. The quality of this fibre was much more uniform than either Manila or New Zealand grades. Mr Seifert said he visited one of I he plantations in Ceylon, and the manager told him that about 182 people were employed there and that the wages amounted to a total of only £9 per day, that was 1/- per day per employee. The haulage was done by cattle, but these beasts were often attacked by leopards, which caused considerable losses. Malaria was also bad among the employees. In Java Mr Seifert was not allowed to inspect the factories or plantations. The labourer in the tropics was paid a very low rate of wages, at one time averaging about, fid per day. The rate now had risen to 1/per day. The coloured labour was not as efficient, however, as that of the temperate climates, but taking everything into, account, the cost of production in the tropics was one-third what it is here and it was the cheapness of labour that gave the Manila and sisal growers such a big advantage over New Zealand.

WORLD’S ITEM? PRODUCTION. The world’s output of hard fibres (he. hemp in the same class as New Zealand filn-c) was as follows, the figures being taken from Wigglesworth and Co. report for 1925: — Manila hemp 156,100 tons, Phil--1 ipino maguey 30,000 tons, Mexican henquen 89,100 tons, .Java sisal 30,000 tons, Tanganyika sisal, Africa, 18,000 tons, Kenya sisal, Africa* 12,000 tons, N.Z. hemp 12,000 tons, Portuguese East Africa sisal 3,000 tons, Bahama sisal 2,000 tons, Jamaica sisal 1,000 tons, Mauritius hemp 800 tons, a total of 354,000 tons.

An interesting feature of these statistics was the large amount of hemp turned out in Java and Africa considering that only a few years ago, sisal hemp was not grown in these parts. THE WORLD'S DEMAND. This quantity of hemp has satisfied the world’s demand, but when it is compared with the amount of cotton and jute produced annually it is very small. The„world uses about 4,000,000. tons of cotton* each year, compared with 350,000 tons of hard' fibres. The quantity of jute used annually was nearly 1,000,- • 000 tons # and the jute mills of Cal- • cutta manufactured about 4,000 tons per day, so that the whole of the hemp produced in New Zealand would only satisfy the jute mills in Calcutta from three to four days. j Mr Seifert said he mentioned this because it bad a bearing on the question as to whether there was a possibility of over-production. It appeared on the face of it that the risk must be taken into account when planting flax, but of course over-production could not take place for many years to come. Re- • search work should be carried out for the purpose of finding other uses for our fibre. Paper could be made of it instead of wood pulp and he believed it could be produced just as cheaply after the initial difficulties had been over-come.' If'other uses could be found for using our fibre, then the danger of over-pro-duction would not exist. RESEARCH WORK. Many difficulties could be overcome, said the speaker, by research work. He had been pleased to leam of the formation of the Scientific Research Council recently. This organisation appeared to be very complete and was composed of good men, and he expected the Council would be the means of causing much progress in the Dominion. It. was the intention of the Council to collect half the money from the industry soliciting scientific assistance, and the other half from the Government. The committee would then see that the work was. carried out by scientific 1 and practical men. EXPERIENCE IN PLANTING. ' Air Seifert touched on his experience in flax planting and crop cutting. He first planted flax at Paiaka about 23 years ago. The area was about six acres and young seedlings were obtained from Tokomaru. The results of this venture were very disappointing as the plants grew very slowly and the venture was considered a failure. But with the knowledge he had to-day Air Seifert said he could take the same land, plant it with some of his selected flax and develop a good crop within three years, The ground had not been at fault but the cultivation and selection of plants. Again, about seven years ago, Air Seifert , planted some flax at Miranui, where the ground was carefully ploughed and thoroughly cultivated before the flax was planted. The cultivation was not continued after the flax was put in and the weeds kept down and here again the result was disappointing. On numerous occasions he had tried thickening up flax in spaces not growing flax in flax areas. In all cases the results were not satisfactory. About 1907 he planted some flax at his residence in Palmerston N., where the ground was thoroughly cultivated, fertilised and kept free from weeds and the surface soil broken from time to time. In a very short time a very heavy crop of flax matured. During the last four or five years Mr Sei- , fert said he had found out a great deal about flax planting and was now able to grow a crop in about three years, which was not possible some years ago. The information had cost him a 1 greaLdeal of money however, and he had often to do things that were wrong as well as right in order to obtain knowledge. Knowledge was often .discovered more from mistakes than succsss. AT THE NURSERY. Air Seifert said that at Aliranui they had a nursery covering several acres and containing many kinds of flax collected from all parts of New Zealand. A record was kept of every variety and a number of tests had been carried out to find the percentage of fibre produced by each kind and also the quality. They possessed several kinds which yielded the highest quality fibre that the speaker had ever seen. The thread was very strong, the texture fine and the colour exceptionally good. The percentage of fibre was fairly high but the plant did’ not grow as rapidly as many other kinds. In other words, it was not such a good cropper as some of the other varieties. They also had another kind which produced a very white fibre, a nice looking thread, was a remarkably good cropper but the fibre was weak. Another kind produced a very good quality fibre, had a large blade, grew very open fronds that could be very easily cut, but the percentage of fibre in the leaf was too low. From the above it could easily be seen that the plant itself had a great deal to do with S

the quality of the fibre. Where a plant gave remarkably good quality in two or three features, say, colour* strength, and spread, it was a poor cropper. By crossing such a plant with another that was strong where the first one was weak, it was probable that a very much improved plant would result. This brought up the question of PLANT BREEDING. Plant breeding should not be undertaken until a careful selection had been made and all the good and bad features known of the selected plants. The plant breeder would then cross with a definite object'in view, and'if he persevered long enough, he would be bound to meet with success. It was slow work, however, and could only be carried out by a man with a very persevering nature. Some day the speaker said he would plant large areas of flax. Until a few months ago he felt that his knowledge on the' subject was not sufficient to guide him in this work, but he had now formed a definite opinion as the result of his observations and, further, he was now in a position to get seed from good plants that had been carefully tested. FUTURE CULTIVATION. Mr Seifert said he was firmly of the opinion that the flaxmilling industry would die out, or recede to a position of no consequence unless extensive flax planting was undertaken. The advantage of carrying on flax milling from cultivated flax would be very great. Once the crop was established the cost of production would be reduced because it would be easy to cut and tram flax in a planted hrea and the quality of the leaf would be much superior both for stripping and for producing good fibre. How far the leaf could be improved was not known, but it might be possible to effect an improvement that would mean £4 or £5 per ton. SUITABLE SOIL FOR FLAX The speaker said that it was well known that the rich land in the Manawntu grew very good flax and that odd floods over a flax crop was no disadvantage. The flooding of the flax areas with silty water prevent- ( cd the flax from being damaged by caterpillars. Whether cheaper land than what is considered rich dairy land would be more profitable for flax growing was a question that had to be gone into. MR SMERLE’S WORK. Mr Seifert briefly referred to the Yellow Leaf disease, and spoke of its ravages at Miranui and elsewhere some time ago. As a result of the scourge several millers had subscribed towards a fund to carry out experimental work with a view to finding good fibre producing plants that would resist the disease. In this connection Mr Smerle had been engaged and he did a great deal of work in the short time he was engaged on the job, but unfortunately before any beneficial results could bo obtained the work had to be stopped. The burden of finding the money had been left to.a few millers and land-owners with the help of a few contributions from merchants and the expense was more than they could stand. The first year the Government contributed nothing towards the work, the second year £l5O, and the third year nothing. After a good ' deal of representation by Messrs Nash and Linklater, M.’sP., however, they offered the contribution asked for, but only a considerable time after the Avork had stopped. It was unfortunate the work was stopped as another two years at least would have seen the full benefits of the work already carried, out. SIDE LEAF CUTTING.''

Mr Seifert said that side leaf cutting was not a new thing. A commission which sat in 1870-1 heard evidence on side leaf cutting by a miller named Nelson, of Hawke’s Bay. Personally he had known of the method for over 20 years. About 14 years .ago the Government cut a small area in this way at the Weraroa State Farm, Levin. Personally Mr Seifert had cut side-leaf at Paiaka 23 years ago, when Mr Fred Bill had carried out the work. In 1918 an acre of (lax was planted at Miranui and in 1920 this area was cut side leaf and a record kept of the weight of the leaf cut. In 1922 Mr Smerle strongly recommended the adoption of this method of cutting. With side-leaf cutting however, the plant was given four light shocks, instead of one bad shock, and the consequence was bad shock and the consequence was that instead of the leaf continuing to grow as large as when cut in the old way, it shortened and got rather light in weight and consequently the yield was not up to what was anticipated. Another factor which militated against successful side-leaf cutting was the hostile attitude of the flax workers, or the Union. They did all they could to force the cost of cutting to a prohibitive figure. The cost of side-leaf cutting is altogether too great and it will eventually have to bej dropped altogether. In the future more money will be put into cultivation and will certainly prove more prolfltable because the crop would mature more quickly and cut heavier than at the present. Mr D. Christie, vice-president of the Chamber moved a vote of thanks to the speaker after he had answered several questions. This was seconded by Mr I. Corn and carried by acclamation. Mr Seifert displayed several samples of fibre, sisal, and Manila and some of his own fibre which had been dressed by a chemical process and finished within three hours.