THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40027, 23 November 1929, Page 2

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

A NEW PROCESS,

REMARKABLE RESULTS

CLAIMED.

Strong marketable libre of good quality claimed to have been produced in fifty weeks from the time of planting the seed pod should provide speculation for, flaxgrowers in the Manawatu.

Although this statement might seem unduly optimist ftp practicable evidence oil this remarkable achievement was brought to the “Standard” Mr. L. jCraw, of Linton, who vouched for the accuracy of the claim made.

Producing lipre which he had in his possession, lie stated that it had been turned out by flaxgrowers on the Haiiraki Plains, and the secret of its quick production as the matured article lay in the elimination of the stripping process. The sample which he brought for inspection had, he stated, never seen either the stripper or chemicals. Without wishing ito impose on the credulity of anyone, he stated that, the fibre had been produced in less than a year from time of planting the seed pod. It had undergone a new process of treatment which consisted of immersing it in boiling water and putting it through rollers under a patent method, which had been adopted with success by his father. The treatment of a block, of thirty acres of llax was just being undertaken, and about a ton of similar fibre had so far been manufactured.

Normally it took nearly seven years’ growth before flax could be put through the stripper. Through another method of quick and economical treatment the period had been wonderfully reduced. Had the llax from which the sample of fibre was taken been put through the stripper at so early a stage, it, would have beffii cut to pieces.

It is the intention of Mr. Craw to submit the fibre to Dr. Yeatcs, of the Massey Agricultural College, for a , critical! examination to determine officially the merits of the new process.