26 



OPERATION OF TOW MILL. 



The tow mills mentioned are equipped in many cases with self-feeders which 

 handle, practically without any hand labour, the bales of straw as they come from 

 the car. The tow breaks are immense 36- or 48- roll machines of tremendous capacity. 



Flax put through one set of breaks produces No. 2, or coarse tow. That given 

 two operations is called No. 1, or medium, the difference in market value being about 

 $1 a ton. Finer grades are sometimes made by repeating these operations. 



From the breaks the flax is carried to a kicker or cleaner which removes most of 

 the small particles of chaff and shives and passes the fibrous material on to its destina- 

 tion, the tow-baler or manufacturing process, as the case may be. The chaff and 

 shives are carried on to cleaning mills. These, by several operations, remove the 

 particles of flax seed and clean all foreign matter from the remaining chaff. 



At one of these tow mills the value of reclaimed seed from flax straw, it was 

 stated, was sometimes sufficient to defray the entire cost of baling and shipping the 

 straw from farm to tow mill. Several men were busy attending to the bagging and 

 disposal of broken and inferior flax seed, which was pouring in an almost constant 

 stream from the cleaned-seed chute at the time of inspection. In another quarter 

 the information was volunteered that the cleaned chaff had a market value of $6 a 

 ton, and was used as a base in stock food by concerns that utilize the by-products of 

 breweries and distilleries. 



Flax Insulation Board. It is in the newer uses of flax straw that we find the 

 best prospect of profit for our western flax farmers. The growing scarcity and rising 

 prices of good, convenient building materials, coupled with the suitability of flax 

 straw as a complete substance for this purpose, has given rise to a new industry in 

 Minnesota the manufacture of building and insulation materials. 



Great quantities of these products are annually disposed of by two companies 

 operating large factories at St. Paul and Winona, Minn. The St. Paul company 

 claims to be contemplating the erection of a factory at some suitable point in western 

 Canada. They seek not only to move nearer the plentiful supply of flax straw in 

 Saskatchewan, but to build up a market for their products in Canada. These two 

 companies consume about 30,000 tons of flax straw annually. This means the product 

 of upwards of 100,000 acres of seed flax as now harvested. Both companies operate 

 their own tow mills at St. Paul, Winona and a few other points the St. Paul com- 

 pany manufacturing a big surplus of tow for the upholstering trade. 



Rather extensive processes and closely patented machinery are features of these 

 plants. Flax forms practically the only raw substance used. Briefly, the treatment 

 consists of bringing the flax to a semi-liquid condition and moulding it under heavy 

 pressure to the desired form. 



Linen Rugs. A small but growing demand for flax straw comes from Duluth, 

 where a large plant is devoted to the manufacture of linen rugs, exclusively from flax 

 fibre. In this plant upwards of 5,000 tons of flax straw are consumed annually. 

 The price paid for baled straw at the plant is now about $8 a ton. For baled tow 

 of good quality the company pays $25 a ton, and for baled fibre flax tow of extra 

 quality, $50 a ton. But little of the last-named product is used. 



The buyer informed the writer that straw had recently been bought from shippers 

 in eastern Montana and transported to the Duluth mill a distance of over 500 miles. 

 From many years' experience in the handling of flax straw, the buyer expressed the 

 opinion that the straw from new lands was ordinarily superior to that from lands 

 longer cultivated. 



The manager of this firm speaks of seeking a site for a branch factory somewhere 

 in western Canada. 



In this plant there is much complicated machinery; and various intricate pro- 

 cesses are required before the finished rug is produced. The visitor is not permitted 



