FLAX CULTURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1305, 19 February 1885, Page 3

FLAX CULTURE.

(Concluded from our last). Having described the two principal and most approved modes of scutching, it may interest our readers to know something of the comparative merits of each mode.

Scutching mills are cheaper in their first cost than scutching machines—the comparison being based on the production that is to say, a eutch mill to produce 20 owt. of flax per day costs considerably less than the scutching machines which would be required for the production of the same quantity. It is also claimed that the flax produced in a scutch mill is better scutched, and (here is less waste than witli scutching machines. The motive power used and the quantity scutched by each workman may be considered the same with each system. The mechanical part of scutch mills is simpler, and consequently less liable to break down. The advocates of scutching machines affirm that unskilled labour can with advantage be employed on them, and that the flax so produced is nearly, if not fully, equal to that produced by skilled labour in scutch mills, the comparison being of course based on the use in both cases of the same quality of fl ix straw. This is a most important feature in favor of scutching machines, ns in many places skilled labour cannot possibly be obtained, and in molt case* it is very expensive. Scutching machines do not require special foundations nor structural peculiarities in the building; being self-contained and complete, they can be placed in any building and in any position where most convenient. Flax growers can buy a single machine as an experiment, and can afterwards increase the number of machines at will, to any extent, as they find the undertaking succeeds. In case of an accident to one of these machines the others, being independent, can go on workiisg ; whereas if an accident occurs in a scutch mill all the blades are stopped. Various arrangements of portable flix macliinety have been made, in most cases by combining the flax-breaking with the flax«scntching machine. Experience ha*, however, proved that these combinations have not been so successful as was expected. Flax breaking machines are easily moved from one place to another, as they are not very heavy, and being compact and strong they will stand a considerable amount of rough usage ; the ordinary machine, without any change of construction, may therefore .bo considered portable. Flax scutching machines are made portable by various modifications in their construction, so that they cun bo easily transported from place to place in the same manner that thrashing machines and steam ploughs are moved from farm to farm in this country. The portability of flax breakers and scutchers is very conducive to the increased production of flax, especially in our colonise and in countries where its cultivation has been neglected. Flax straw being very bulky, it is of extreme importance that the .flax should be scutched as near the place of growth as possible, in order to avoid the great expense of cartage of the straw. These portable machines are therefore taken to some convenient centre in a flax-growing district, the centre generally being the place of easiest access, and where power is best obtained. When all the flax straw from that immediate neighborhood has been scutched, the machines are removed to another centre, and so on, according to the requirements of the district.' Flax has up to now always been sent to market in the state in which it leaves the scutcher; that is to say more or less perfectly scutched, and more or less free from shieve or boon and tow.

It is a great pity that all growers of flax and hemp do not discern that their true interests are, first to send their productions into the market ns clean and as carefully prepared as possible ; secondly, to pack the bales with the same degree of care that has been devoted to the preparation of the contents.

The scutching tow should also be thoroughly cleaned and freed from extraneous matters ; it will then fetch a considerably higher price than the rubbish that is now sent into the market. When trade is bad and prices falling, well-known aud honest brands will generally fetch a fair price, bnt badly-prepared and carelessly-packed flax and hemp are almost unsaleable at such limes. Flax and hemp growers will do woll to note that their productions will always 1 iberally repay, by an improved selling price, all the labour and care that are judiciously applied to them. Flax and hemp may be much improved by undergoing a softening process, which imparts considerable additional value to tbe fibre.

The softening process is generally effected by passing the fibre between fluted rollers which have a reciprocating motion, that is to say,'the rollers revolve in a forward direction and then have a backward motion imparled to them, the former always being in excess of the latter, so that the fibre, while being subjected to the bruising and softening effect of the rollers, gradually passes through the machine.

Softening machines are made with from three to twenty pairs of roller. The question of brushing flax and hemp after the scutching process has occupied the attention of many people, and various machines have been designed which would have met with greater success and bean more extensively used but for the great first cost of the bristle brushes, and the heavy expense caused by the »jcessity of frequently replacing them by new ones, in consequence of the heavy wear and (ear to which they are exposed. The effect of brushing flax and hemp, and all similar fibres, is to free them from dust and dirt, and all extraneous mailers, and to brighten the fibre in a wonderful degree. The introduction and daily increasing use of vegetable brushing fibres in substitution of bristles for machine purposes has io a great measure done away with the difficulties formerly experienced in the application of brushing to the final preparation of fibres, The process of brushing is not an expensive one, and it may be safely estimated that 5s to 10s per ton spent on the brushing of the fibre will add £8 to £4 per ton to its selling price, Well cleaned fibre dojs not suffer so much from heavy packing as dirty fibre, and there is a considerable saving in the cost of freight.