FLAX WASTE

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13934, 12 July 1919, Page 4

FLAX WASTE

CAN IT BE UTILISED? • Referring to tihe flax industry, ki - wliicih he has been .carrying oin researches for 1 three yea.Ha past, Prbf esf sor Eastern" eld fold the local body & delegates that iit. 'took aptpiroxirnfltely 1 eight tomls of green flax to make a - ton of fibre. or, counting 1 all the fibre, the inferior as well as the be sit 1 fibre six tons of leaf to* one ittomj of 1. fibre. These figures seemed to show J tJilaiti there wa« bigl loss, bufo mi ac>J tuial factfe itibe b&siti labora'tary result * he had bean able, to obtten'ni wfts om« , unit of fiibii'fei from' nVo uniits of leaf : ■ so tihatb he did not consider thailr tilie 1 flax miller was d'oiinw feio badly im his process for remiofvin i 2' the gireeni matter to clean the fibre. He spoke ot the ways in which the great matter might: I© utilised.' In the first place tha waste was rich in potash' amd phosphoric- acid, 'and therefore very valuiaible a© miamure. UnforfcuniiaieJy, tlhe cost of tr^tnspon.-'fc made the wide use of tihis waste- far 1 maiTbUi"e imip'os--siible. In actual fact; it oon!tla.ined • TO 1 iper cent of waiter 1; and a farmer douid' not: pay freight on waited. Onie of his suggasitiioms Avats tObuafti the waisite- might, be TQtuimied'"toi the fla.x larid^as iniaiviire foi' itlhe girtoiwiiingi plaoiitis.. A plant growing! fis ir'aipiidly a® flax musti take enior- . moois"' toll am theste snibstiainceis', poitash • and 1 iphtoispihoiric acid, • from the soil, ; and unless th© sodil was re foirttified <

with manure the crops would weaken). As <a matter of -faciti experimiemtsi had beem begun wilth (the us© of &M><g waste as miamuirei amd the results profmiised tio b© good- Alsoi it wass found thait tihe waste coinitiaiined three /pea" oaniti of sugar. IV deial wiftih, the siugtar 1 ind'irsitiria3ly. lie isiand 1 thaib his scheimie at ptr^senit was sterilise thei wattle by heating din order to -iprevemib -thei sugar be•ing aitttaeibeid' by bacteria,. 'This dcine, tho waste v was squeezed. The MquM comitiap'inied all the sugar, amd all the njianuirial coniteniti. The liquid miight still ..toe vised 1 as liquid manure,, or it mdghJh be u^d for making! alcohol. He. produced a boitfe of the fines*, rectified ■ fiipdriiti made from flaoc-fibre': The residue miight bei used in thei mills, asfuel. He looked to .the tfrrae when the. flax miills; would r.ioifc haivei to use any other fuel. Ati present thei return ]er acre ■ froomi flax giroiwlngl waig alb lea^t equ'a.l ta the, return■.■from <Miry. fairmi . ing, bruit, thle- fpioisiitioto of the indiusitiry wais precarious, becauso a, fall in prices woiiiHd kill it. Hi-si sugges'tiiotnisi for the uitiiia'mtiioin^of waste would porhaipgi be valuable when, lo<w prices oaime again,, m they ipiroibably would' mi four or fire yearn from cow.