Fortunes in Flax

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 146, 10 September 1927, Page 28 (Supplement)

Fortunes in Flax

World’s Most Valuable Plant VISTAS OF UNTOLD WEALTH DHORMIUM TENAX. the New Zealand fibre plant, has a future in our commerce, which may some day place it on a level with leading agricultural products. Long ago its utility was recognised, but it is only within recent years that its full possibilities began to dawn upon those engaged in the flaxmilling industry.

tTNDER proper methods of selection, ' cultivation and intelligent harvesting the yield of flax from an acre of land can be increased many fold, and the returns can be made to exceed the profits from dairying twice over. The flaxmiller in bygone years has dealt mainly with the products of selfsown areas, aiid the difference in dealing with wild flax and the cultivated plant is just about as wide as the difference between scrub cattle and a tested herd of purebreds. Mr. H. G. Milburn, president of the Dominion Flax Planters’ Federation, recently prepared a paper on the future of the flax industry, and the following extracts from it will be of interest to SUN readers.

Our New Zealand flax in its wild uncultivated and unattended state, as hitherto milled in New Zealand,

yields from the milling of its leaf an astonishing average of 12 per cent, to 15 per cent, of marketable fibre as compared with the following averages of other commercial fibre plants under cultivation. Variety. Fibre. Sisal . . 2J per cent, to 31 per cent. East Africa . . 3 per cent, to 3 1-3 per cent. Manilla Hemp 2£ per cent. Mauritius Hemp . . 2 per cent to 2£ per cent. It is certainly extraordinary that notwithstanding the marvellous yield of fibre from the plant and its general utility and world-wide demand, up to within the past few years little or no attempt has been made to treat the plant as a farm crop to systematically plant, cultivate and select from the better varieties —more surprising still, perhaps, when one realises the general profitableness of the industry even und,er the methods that have mostly prevailed in the past. As an example of the profits of the industry, take the case of the old Whitanui Flax Milling Company, which over a period of approximately 15 years, paid annual dividends, the lowest of which was 20 per cent, and the highest over 100 per cent. Besides investing in War Bonds in the year that this latter dividend was paid, an aipount equal to 50 per cent, of its whole capital, and paying' war taxation equal to another 50 per cent, of its capital. The crops of wild green leaf obtained in the past from the better class flax swamps in the Dominion, cutting under the hook method once in every 3| to 4 years, appears 4 to have been 28 to 36 tons per acre, equivalent to an annual yield of 7 to 9 tons an ac|;e. RETURNS IN MANAWATU

Over a period of 10 years in the Manawatu district the average royalty paid a ton of green leaf was 20s; therefore, on a royalty basis only the wild crop has been worth £ 7 to £ 9 an acre an annum to the grower, an interest return of 14 per cent, to IS per cent., assuming the land to have been of a capital value of £SO an acre. Where the grower, however, has also been the miller, he has had an added profit from the milling of the leaf. Allowing only £5 a ton profit for the milling, the return approaches approximately £l2 to £l4 an acre an annum, or a return of 20 per cent, to 23 per cent, on land and plant, averaging £6O an acre. The cost of production, it is recognised, must always be governed by such factors as situation of the mill, type and condition of plant and machinery, skill and ability of the staff and management and similarly the yield of leaf will be governed by the richness or otherwise of the land, an adequate drainage system, provision for keeping the land in good heart by either artificial manuring or by the enrichment of the land by temporary flooding. NEW ERA OPENED UP Large though the profits of the flax industry have been in the past, a new era has opened up for the industry under new improved methods of systematic planting, cultivation, cutting and milling, which will undoubtedly very largely increase the returns obtainable. While probably some 1,500 acres have been systematically planted in flax during the past two years, and this area will be more than doubled during the next twelve months, owing to the plantations not having yet reached matur-

ity, no definite data is available as to the ultimate yields of leaf and fibre obtainable. Sufficient information is, however, available to definitely indicate the very much larger yields which will be obtained under the more scientific methods being employed. “In August of last year. 33 acres were planted out on Air. Frank Wall’s property at Martinborough. In April of this year, eight months after planting, this area was described by a representative of the Wellington “Dominion” as a “remarkable sight, the plants having made wonderful growth.” Mr. IT. T. Greedy, Mr. Frank Wall’s manager, whose qualifications as an experienced flax grower and miller are well recognised throughout the Dominion, stated that this area would be ready for cutting 12 months from that date and would yield several tons of

green leaf to the acre; that is to say, the first crop will be available two years and eight months from the date of planting. These plants were developed from single “fans” and Mr. Greedy stated that in five years the whole of this planted area would be a “sea” of flax. Mr. Greedy stated that £6O an acre would be taken off this area every year, representing ;wo tons of fibre to the acre and giving £2O an acre clear profit. This was off: £ 80 an acre land, which Mr. Greedy maintained would give a better return from the flax than from grazing, although it was best grazing land in the Wairarapa. Described as another remarkable sight was a large area of flax which had been planted in turf about eight or nine years ago. Although a crop of from 16 to 18 tons an acre had been taken off this area in October by side-leafing, the six months’ interval had produced another dense growth cf six feet or more of new leaf. The plants of this area were originally planted six feet apart but the development was such that the area was now an almost impenetrable forest of flax in which a group of men were lost to sight. SIDE-LEAF CUTTING “With regard to the results obtainable from side-leaf cutting as compared with the hook method, owing to the systematically planted areas not yet having reached the producing stage, data of yields so far are only available from the side-leafing in some of the wild fiax areas. Mr. Alfred Seifert states that after 44 years’ side-leaf cutting on their wild flax areas, the increased yield under the new method still amounted to 70 per cent. Such increase of yield has been established after successive, intensive, annual cuttings of the plant in its wild state and off land which has been yielding leaf crops for many years. It is an axiom in agricultural practice that in any form of intensive cropping of any one crop, the necessity arises for replacing by manure, the particular ingredients of the soil which are being constantly drawn upon and depleted by the special demands of that particular kind of crop. When it is realised that after 44 years of much more intensive cropping by the side-leaf method as compared with the hook method and without the aid of any artificial manuring,

the increase in yield is still ?o r* p | cent, over the old method, some Me ! lean be formed of the increase to bo obtained from the new method under the more favourable condition. I Of the planted areas where faculties t, r following up the accepted practice of manuring the crop exist, but which pre sents many difficulties in the case of the wild flax areas.

• The very much more favourable conditions appertaining to systemati cally planted areas, as compared « iUI the wild flax areas are striking, poined out by Sir. Alfred Seifert in his article in the Government "Journa 0 f Agriculture” (February 21, 192i))_ „

It must be recognised that (he labour of cutting and handling planted flax would be much less than doing the same work in the present flax areas. In the first place the flax would be in rows and the bottom would be good for those engaged in the work of cutting and carrying the flax to where it could be taken away, whereas where the flax has grown naturally there is no system or order in the planting and the surface is often uneven, which makes work difficult.’

“The difficulties that have arisen therefore, with regard to s:ce-leaiW the wide areas and the increased con of cutting, largely attributable to these special difficuities, will not oe present in the systematically planter! areas” From information received from the Government of Argentina, the annual yield they are getting there from the systematically planted areas of oir New Zealand flax, works out at a mean average of approximately 31 tons an acre per annum of green leaf, w'hLh is yielding approximately one ton of fibre to six tons of green leaf. These figures are considerably in excess of the New Zea land Government estimate of 20 to 30 tons of leaf from matured plantations under the best soil and climatic conditions.

Dr. Goulding, chief fibre expert of the Imperial Institute, has stated that under cultivation and favourable soil and climatic conditions, our New Zealand flax gives an annual yield of 45 to 55 tons of leaf an acre, yielding five to seven tons of hemp as against the next highest yield among the commercial fibre; plants, namely, sisal hemp, which under similar conditions yields 40 tons of leaf an acre, which only, however, yields one to one and a half tons of fibre. INCREASING EXPORTS OF NEW ZEALAND HEMP Every year since 1921 has seen a steady increase in the export trade for New Zealand flax fibre. In that year (1921) 11,177 tons of a value cf £319,604 were exported. Last yeir (1926) 20,798 tons of a total value of £589,603 were exported—an export increase of nearly 100 per cent, in six years. The largest importing countries for our flax are Lie United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada. I was recently informed by one of the largest rope and cordage manufacturers in Australia that no less than 95 per cent, of the binder twine manufactured in Australia is made from our New Zealand hemp. New Zealand flax fibre has no equal as a binder twine and one of the largest American firms has stated that it a.one, could absorb much more than the whole cf the present quantity available lor export for the one purpose of binder twine manufacture. The world-wide demand for our fibre is such that the New Zealand Government is able to assure us, that in its opinion, the Dominion cannot over-produce. The lower grade fibre is used for ropes and curdage and makes one of the strongest brown papers procurable. NEW USES FOR FLAX FIBRE Scientists now state definitely that the fibre can be cottonised, that is. made spinnable for the finer yarns. It is particularly suitable for the manufacture of cigarette paper, high bark paper and the finest cf artificial silk. Samples of sacking anc hessian have already been turned out in the Dominion and I recently had an opiuortunity of submitting one of these samples of hessian to the manage:: of a large cordage and rope factory in Australia. He was much impressed with it and expressed the opinion that it was the finest hessian he had seen and much superior to the imported article. It should be mentioned that this hessian and sacking was manufactured in New Zealand from mostly stripper slips with a percentage of tow, the cost of the raw material being considerably less than half that of ;ute from which the imported sticks are manufactured. Sacks to the value of over £600,000 are imported annually into the Dominion and it is pleasing to know that steps are already being taken to secure the capital necessary' to establish a local industry and to use the locally produced fibre.” A Dunedin resident has already stated that he can produce a saasfactory wool pack from our fibre, under a process which renders it free from an stray fibres, which lias given so muon trouble to wool growers in the past. New Zealand and Australia uses annually approximately 10 milion N ar " of fabric in these wool packs, and 1 able to be manufactured locally in Zealand and Australia from our >ew Zealand fiax, this alone would give employment to some; 1 000 hands, i * many increasing uses for our -N® Zealand hemp must tend to inc f ea r; the market value of our fibre and e . ~ perts are agreed that the outlook the industry has never been krign e • New Zealanders a:*e now awakenn s to the wonderful opportunity’ for profitable investment of funds m reputable flax planting and milling eo " cerns, and companies with a J® capital approximating £1,000,000 n - already been successfully floated or - - forming, and British and Australi capital has already been attracted •. the extremely lucrative returns t can be secured from an investmen this industry'. _ .