Historic 

 Experiments. 



Proceedings, 

 Board of 

 Revenue. 



Arab Flax- 



Roxburgh. 



LINUM 



USITATISSIMUM THE FLAX PLANT 



Flax 



to which it is applied in Europe. Of flax he says the Natives know nothing of 

 its use to make thread. In 1825 Thornton brought out the second edition of 

 Milburn's Oriental Commerce, in which work it is stated that " flax is very gener- 

 ally cultivated in Bengal and Bihar for the oil which is obtained from the seeds, 

 the stalks being rejected as useless." [Cf. Rawlinson, Hist. Ancient Egypt, 

 1881, i., 62-3.] 



Thus then from the observations already made, it may be inferred that the 

 study of the production and utilisation of -fc. usHntlttttimmn resolves itself into 

 two sections, Flax and Linseed. These cannot of course be exhaustively dealt 

 with, but I shall dispose of Flax (to India infinitely the lesser important 

 product) first of all, and in a very few words. 



FLAX AND LINEN. The possibility of combining the production of 

 linseed with, the supply of flax has been spasmodically raised in India 

 every now and again during the past hundred years or so. An important 

 series of experiments and investigations were in consequence conducted 

 in 1790 to 1810 ; another in 1840 ; and still a third in 1872, the object 

 being not so much to ascertain whether a profitable combined seed and 

 fibre industry could be organised, as to ascertain whether flax could 

 become a commercial product of India at all. In the Proceedings of 

 the Honourable the East India Company, preserved in the records of 

 the Board of Revenue, Bengal, of date 1805-7, are many interesting 

 details of the early experiments. Six Arab flax-dressers were sent from 

 Bassora to Bengal, but failed to produce good fibre from the plants raised 

 from the seed specially imported from Bassora. Roxburgh, in 1801, 

 and again in 1806, gave accounts of the experiments he had conducted at 

 the Company's Hemp Farm near Calcutta. An army of writeis, down 

 to Royle's time, may be said to have recorded their theories or narrated 

 their experiments. On each occasion of special investigation, the results 

 obtained were not deemed encouraging. But more recently still a new 

 phase has arisen that may in the future assume some importance. The 

 demand for cheap cordage, to be used as " binders," has suggested the 

 possibility that the stems of the linseed-yielding plants (while they doubt- 

 less do not contain fibre of sufficient merit and abundance to justify being 

 elaborately separated, cleaned, and placed on the market as Indian flax) 

 may still by a simple method of preparation afford a cordage fibre that, 

 as a catch crop, might undersell even jute. At present the stems of the 

 linseed plant are not used in any way, and if they could be turned into a 

 profitable by-product a great boon would doubtless be conferred on the 

 Indian cultivators. 



Vesque (Traite de Bot. Agri. et Indust., 1885, 495) very properly 

 observes that climate exercises a considerable influence on the qualities 

 of fibre or seed produced. In warm countries the fibre is least abundant, 

 but the seed crop profuse. He then adds that the seeds obtained from 

 a fibre crop may be useful for oil, but they are imperfectly formed and 

 can never be used for reproduction. Conversely, if the seeds be fully 

 developed, the fibre is all but ruined. If the combination crop of flax 

 and linseed be in India seriously contemplated in the future, the plants 

 would have to be sickled close to the ground or pulled up by the root, 

 the seeds being thrashed out and the stems subsequently treated for their 

 fibre. But the question of all others that naturally arises is this can 

 the same plant yield both products profitably ? Would it not be preferable 

 to grow separate crops ? 



Extensive experiments would very possibly have to be conducted by 

 the various Governments of India in order to ascertain the conditions 



722 



Cheap Binders. 



Catch Crop. 



Climate. 



Reaping. 



Are Both Crops 

 Possible ? 



Official 

 Investigations. 



