LINEN FLAX

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1940, Page 4

LINEN FLAX

EXPERIMENTS IN MARLBOROUGH. TEST OF NEW MACHINE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, This Day. A linen flax deseeding machine, the invention of a Blenheim farmer, Mr C. J. Lucas, of Dillon’s Point, is undergoing tests prior to inspection this week by Mr R. B. Tennent, Director of Primary Production and other Government officers, who are to visit Blenheim in connection with the campaign to induce farmers to grow more linen flax. Since practically all foreign supnlies of linen flax has been cut off as a result of the war, the part the Dominion will have to play in its production becomes of the greatest importance. Consequently, the success of this machine is linked closely- with the future of a young industry. Test operations are proceeding at Marshlands, near Blenheim, where tho whole of the 250 tons of linen flax from the hundred acres grown in Marlborough this year has been assembled for treatment. These crops have produced magnificent samples, both of fibre and seed, and as the seed is being saved to build up stocks for increased sowings in the coming season, the work of Mr Lucas’s machine is especially important. Imported machines which have been tested have proved unsatisfactory, but tlie Blenheim invention appears to be entirely successful. It is capable of dealing with a ton of flax per hour, extracting 1J to 2 cwt. of seed and employing three men. compared with a Belgian machine which handles only three tons daily and requires five operators. Provided the equipment passes the official trials, it will be taken over by the Government and about forty machines will be built for linen flax factories in different parts of New Zealand. The processing of linen flax is also a subject of experimentation at Marshlands, where Mr L. C. Chaytor, who has for many years advocated the establishment of the industry in the Dominion, is erecting a plant which promises to reduce the time factor materially.