THE TEMUKA LINSEED COMPANY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1156, 4 October 1883, Page 3

THE TEMUKA LINSEED COMPANY.

A meeting of the above Company was held last Tuesday night in the Wallingford Hotel. Present—Mr John Talbot (Chairman), Messrs Wright, Hayhurst, Lyon, Woodhead, R A Barker and E Brown.

The following report was submitted by Messrs Talbot and Lyon who visited and inspected the Christchurch Company’s works arid machinery: Gentlemen,— With a view of acquiring practical information to guide our Company in the purchase of the most suitable machinery, it was decided by the Directors to'depute two of their body to visit the works of the Christchurch Company who had kindly, through their Secretary Mr Murphy, offered to afford all the information in their power. We beg to inform you that in accordance with this decision we proceeded to Christchurch on Wednesday, Sept. 19th, returning again on Saturday the 22nd. We have every reason to be well satisfied with the result of our visit, having gathered much useful information in connection with this industry in general, as well as specially in regard to machinery. The Christ church Company having imported one of the American Vegetable Fibre Company’s machines, and as Mr Murphy arranged for a trial of it to take plane, we were enabled to see it in actual work and therefore to judge somewhat of its capabilities. The machine is at present standing in Mr George Booth’s implement yards, the Company not being sufficiently satisfied with it to put it to actual work. The machine is of very simple construction and takes up but little room, ii weighs. a trifle over a ton. The main part consists of a drum with wooden beaters, about four feet in diameter, and two pans of flufed.rollers, with the requisite gearing. The rollers are each about six inches in diameter. The principle on which it works is:—The straw is fed to the first pair of rollers end on, which pass it on through the other pair. These two pair of rollers do the breaking. Tire crushed straw as it through the last pair of rollers is submitted to the action of the drum* which is'driveu at a fairly high rate qf speed. This drum does the scutching portion of the work The feeder stands on a small platform so arranged that by the action of his feet ho can set the rollers in motion forward or backward as required. The straw therefore having been passed into the drum, the rollers are rendered stationary for so long as is deemed requisite to scutch the one rend. Their action is then reversed and the material returned to the operator to be changed ends with. A 3 h.p. engine

was used to drive the machine. We are unable to say positively the number of hands required to work it, but approximately we should say it would require at least five. The result of the trial was not very satisfactory. It was, however, stated by Mr Murphy to have succeeded better than at a former trial. Tne straw operated upon was unevenly retted, and it seems requisite that the fibre should part very easily indeed from the straw to render it competent for this machine to scutch it at all fairly well. A noticable defect is that the operator cannot tell when the material is sufficiently scutched, except by getting it returned to him, when if it is found not to have had sufficient it must be allowed to pass into the machine again, which involves aloss of time. We should doubt if the machine is as strongly built as it ought to be to render it safe against breakdowns. On the next day succeeding this trial we proceeded to the site of the Company’s works at Southbridge, Mr Murphy having kindly written to Mr McKeage, their manager there, asking him to afford us all the information possible. We regret we were unable to see the machinery in operation in consequence of work being temporarily suspended. Mr McKeage, however, explained to us very clearly every detail of the work carried on there. The machinery here was imported from Belfast, Ireland, wind is of the oldfashioned and well-known type, which seems so far to maintain its superiority over all innovations. The first process here consists in passing the straw through a breaking machine consisting of five pair of rollers. It is then passed on to the scutchers, six iu number, who we are informed, are able to scutch as fast as it can be put through the rollers. The scutching is effected with wooden beaters securely fastened to a revolving shaft; the material being held by the hand, any number of sets of beaters could be driven on the one shaft. When the mills are in operation about a dozen hands are employed, two or three of whom may be boys. Comparing the working of this machinery from an economical point of view with the American machine wo have no doubt that three times the amount of straw can be put through here in a day than can be put through the American, and 7 as we were assured that the scutching as done as fast as the rollers were capable of breaking the straw, we must conclude that a greater amount of fibre per man employed will be turned out, and we have no hesitation in saying of a much superior quality The straw operated upon by the American machine was a sample taken out of the bulk of what they are putting through here, a considerable quantity of which is on the ground ready retted. We examined it and compared some of it with such as we saw put into the American machine, and which it totally failed to dress. Mr McKeage assured us that no difficulty was experienced in dressing it here ; in fact, it was the ordinary run of the stuff, and that what we had seen the American machine succeed best with was too rotten to be of much use. We have since received a leter from Mr McKeage saying that the mills have now started work again and are doing better with the stuff than was anticipated. As a result of our inspection and enquiries we confidently recommeuiTthat the class of machinery in use at Southbridge be adopted by this Company. We are aware that our instructions included Also the authority to order such machinery as we deemed most suitable. We have not done so for the reason that we are of opinion no necessity exists for sending out of the country for it, and as it can be got on short notice we decided to await a meeting of Directors, as there are in our opinion other matters requiring immediate attention. Messrs Booth and Macdonald, ef the Carlyle Implement Works, are at present making two sets of machines to- the order of the Christchurch Company, and will probably have then ready by the November Agricultural show. We have no doubt whatever after seeing the nature of the machinery, that the firm will have no difficulty in supplying the order. We are now in a position to recommend the course of action to be adopted, and to give a fairly reliable estimate of the cost of initiating the industry among us. We recommend that steps be at once taken to acquire a site for the works of not less than 15 acres in extent—with good water power thereon, if possible, and centrally situated. We are of opinion that one set of breaking rollers with the requisite number of scutching stocks will be sufficient for the first year. Should it be decided to get the machinery made in Christchurch the order should be given soon. If on the other hand it be decided to import from the Old Country, the order should be sent by cable, so that as little delay as possible may occur in getting it to hand. We estimate the cost of the requisite plant and site as follows Site, say £SOO 0 0 Breaking and scutching machinery 120 0 0 Motive power, either water or steam 250 0 0 Sheds 250 0 0 Retting ponds, fixing machinery, etc 200 0 0 Total £1320 0 0 These estimates are liber*! ; a much smaller amount would suffice if rigid economy rather than convenience and an eye to thefnture were the chief consideration. We deem it best, however, to recommend that everything should be done properly at the outset, the capital of the Company being amply sufficient to render makeshifts unnecessary, as well as to provide For the future extension of the business. It will be observed that the greater part of the estimated eapenditnre is on property that will always be value for the money irrespective of the success or failure of this undertaking. A very small amount of capital wjll be really risked in it. Before closing with the subject of machinery, etc., we might remark that we were at first rather impressed with ope feature of the American machine viz, its adaptability for being moved about from place to place. This however, on further consideration is of t>.s importance, as we are fully convinced that the straw must undergo the operation of retting on the Company’s own bite.

As this industry is at present in the, experimental stage, any light tMt ©an he thrown upon the snbjept doubtless be acceptable. We, bAve made enquiries and elicited qll the information we oould, with the result that we are of opinion that the prospects are sufficiently encouraging for us to go on confidently with the enterprise. The proceedings of the Christ'

chureh Company furnish som-t data fur our guidance, and indicate, with some clearness the lines upon which wo should work. It appears that the bulk of the linseed grown at Southbridge last year was comprised in one patch of about 30 acres, described as having been a splendid crop, yielding over 20 bushels of seed per acre ; the straw being of good length and fibre-bearing qualities. ;Unfortunately, however, the value of the crop was allowed to deteriorate very considerably, apparently through neglect We were informed that it remained in the paddock unstacked for eight or ten weeks and suffered severely from exposure. We were shown samples of the fibre produced from the crop both before the injury was sustained and afterwards ; the former estimated to be worth £65 to £7O per ton and the latter £35 to £4O. The waste in working up is much greater on account of the injury than it would otherwise bo, and is it also more costly to work. Under these circumstances the crop will not be a payable one. There is a fair amount being sown in that district this year by farmers on their own account. The Company are also sowing several acres themselves, renting the land for the purpose. From reliable information given to us we are of opinion that an average crop of linseed will produce from 4cwt to scwt of fibre per acre, and about 15 bushels of seed. Accepting this as being near enough to the mark, we can calculate the probable chances of its being likely to become a payable crop to cultivate. It would accordingly stand thus—. Say 4cvvt fibre, at 60s ... £l2 0 0 15 bushels seed at 4s ... 3 0 0

Total £ls 0 0 Cost of production,— Rent of land, say £2 0 0 Seed, and putting in ... 2 0 0 Pulling and h&vesting ... 210 0 Retting and scutching 4cwt fibre, about 5 0 0 Total £ll 10 0 Balance to profit... £3 10 0 Thev&em of pulling may be found in practice capable of being reduced by the difference between it and cutting with a ntachine. The estimate, retting and dressing, is based on the information supplied to us of the actual cost at Southbridge as nearly as we could make it out, ■Hind is, we think, liberal. An important item of the calculation is the value set down for the fibre, as it is on this that the whole thing must depend. We have little doubt, however, that the price named is a safe one, as we are of opinion that at this figure it would pay for spinning into binding twino, of which the sample shown to us as being worth £6O pei ton would make a very superior quality. We think it highly probable that fibre of a much higher value may be produced than that named. It will be seen, if we compare the estimated return from an acre of flax with an acre of an average crop of wheat, that the advantage is with the former. Returns from an acre'of wheat, say, 30 bushels at 4s £6 0 0 Cost of production— Rent £2 0 0 Seed and putting in 1 0 0 Harvesting, threshing, and carting to market ... 110 0 Total £4 10 0 Balance to Profit, £llos. There is, however, another point of view, from which the cultivation of linseed should be considered, viz., the amount of labor required in its preparation. We have seen that the estimated gross returns fiom an acre are £ls from linseed, as against £6 from wheat; the farmer may not pocket a much larger sum from the one than from the other, but the gain to the country as a whole by the expenditure of the difference in the actual value of the crop, upon labor, must be apparent, as it is the support of a larger population that we should aim at. We are of opinion that the Company should endeavor to get farmers to cultivate a few acres, in patches of such size as they could manage properly, and should at the same time undertake the growth of a few acres itself. There is no question that this industry is deserving of serious attention from us for many reasons. The products are of great value in a small bulk; it requires no special ingenuity or skill in its production, the machinery required is simple and inexpensive ; and the requisite building* consist of a shed or two ; at the same time there is a market for the products within the colony, which there is little danger of overstocking, both for the fibre manufactured into twine and rope, and for the oil from the seed. We desire to acknowledge the courtsey extended to us by Mr Murphy, to whom we are indebted for much valuable information, and also Mr McKeage, of Southbridge.—We are, etc , John Talbot William Lyons. On the motion of Mr Barker seconded by Mr Brown the report was adopted. The balance of the leport will appeal in our next.