16 



f ul and uses the centre but the ultimate loss in value occasioned by a generally reduced 

 length of fibre is of considerable moment. It is, however, erroneous to hold that 

 flax plants cannot be too long. Flax of an extreme length is difficult to handle well 

 with the ordinary mill equipment, and it therefore entails a loss. Medium lengths 

 are preferred, fibre of about 30 inches being most easily handled under Canadian 

 conditions. 



Some controversy has arisen as to whether cut fibre can be utilized by the spinner 

 in making the high numbers of yarn. (It undoubtedly gives satisfaction in the coarser 

 yarn.) This is one more of the old traditions about flax that cannot be refuted by the 

 scant data here available. It may be said, however, that certain well-known spinners 

 have expressed themselves as having no fear of difficulty on this score. 



In general, the means of harvesting have come to be of the utmost consequence 

 in Canada. An insufficient supply of the right sort of labour is largely the cause of 

 mill abandonment and reduced acreage. For twenty years or more, recourse has been 

 had to the American Red Indian from the various Indian reserves, "who, in saving 

 the situation for the time being, merely postpones the inevitable era of machine 

 harvesting. In brief, the Indian has become so- indispensable that he must be dis^ 

 pensed with. The fault with him is not the quality of the work he performs, but 

 manifold troubles, such as preliminary coaxing and dickering and disappointment, 

 his lack of responsibility, the coddling he demands for himself and family, his train 

 of paraphernalia, and similar nuisances. 'While hand pulling is adhered to, the 

 difficulties are not likely to be lessened, owing to increasing acreage and growing 

 , scarcity of white pullers. 



Even were it possible by hand pulling to harvest all the flax seasonably, the 

 high cost of the operation argues the need of machine methods. As the following 

 table shows, the expense of pulling flax compared to value of the product is unusually 

 high in the scale of ordinary Ontario crops: 



COMPARATIVE Cost of Harvesting Various Crops in Ontario, 1913. 



* Figured on the basis of 2 tons of seeded straw at $14 a ton. 



Flax is thus handicapped as a farm crop before it enters the stage of manu- 

 facture. 



PULLING MACHINES. 



The fact that, though inventors in both Canada and the United States have at 

 intervals been working on pulling machines since about 1840, no thoroughly success- 

 ful puller has been developed, is due, probably, less to the absolute difficulty of the 

 task than to other causes among which may be noted: 



(a) Fibre flax has been confined mainly to the rough-surfaced timber 

 lands, where for years after breaking there has been little demand for machin- 



