140 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Makch 



crops produced, must of necessity be as different 

 as the soil and climate. A crop suitable for the 

 Berkshire Hills would not be the most profitable 

 for the lands of Essex county ; neither would soil 

 at the same altitude on Mount Katahdin, in Maine, 

 produce the same crop as would the Green Moun- 

 tains in Vermont. The same rule applies to the 

 raising of stock upon the farm, and the food they 

 eat. The dray horse in Boston could not perform 

 the same amount of labor as the one used on the 

 sides of the Monadnock, if he had only the same 

 food to eat, neither will two cows give the same 

 amount of milk, or fatten alike, fed upon the same 

 food in the different localities of Barnstable and 

 Berkshire. 



All the elements of nature are constantly chang- 

 ing, and thus produce different results in differ- 

 ent localities, and at different periods. 



Vegetation changes, also, and often the tropi- 

 cal plant may be acclimated to northern or north- 

 ern temperate zones. Many plants, like that of 

 cotton, have been confined to certain latitudes for 

 a perfect growth, for centuries, with but little 

 change, but Flax, the subject of our discussion 

 this evening, is of extended growth, and from its 

 fibre the same result, or a better, is produced, so 

 that nature seems harmonious in her laws, after 

 all, and is not always partial in the distribution 

 of her bounties. 



Flax is of almost universal growth over the 

 whole earth, and from the earliest authentic his- 

 tory we find its fibre in use for clothing and its 

 seed for oil. Egypt, Rome and Britain used it 

 for linen, which for thousands of years was the 

 principal covering of the people, and the Ameri- 

 can colonies followed the mother land in her 

 preference for its wear, and cultivated the plant 

 among their first, most useful products. Up to 

 about 1750, it was used principally clear, but from 

 that time cotton filling was introduced, and a 

 mixed goods produced which became the staple 

 of commerce of the times. When the improve- 

 ments in the cotton machinery were brought out 

 by Favc, Arkwright and Ilargreaves, in 17C7, 

 cotton come more into general use, and flax and 

 linen, for ordinary uses, began to fall in the rear, 

 and for the last century it has been a secondary 

 product both in Europe and America. The great 

 demand for Cotton, and its almost exclusive 

 growth in limited sectiv/ns of the v/orld, has, at 

 various periods of time, enlisted great efforts for 

 flax, to make it a substitute for cotton, but most 

 of them failed from the fact that the operators 

 mistook the anatomical character of the fibre and 

 the cementing compound which held them togeth- 

 er on the stalk of the plant. 



The old method of working flax was in long 

 line, using the filaments and fi!)re8 in a united 

 thread, without reducing tlitm down to the ulti- 



mate fibril, either in length or size, and using in 

 their manufacture machinery ])eculiarly adapted 

 for the purpose, and differing materially from 

 that used for manufacturing either cotton or wool. 

 The mode of preparing the fibre was also peculiar, 

 the same being subjected M'hile in the straw to a 

 fermenting or rotting process, which tended to 

 set the gluten and albumen, and, when followed by 

 boiling in alkalies, rendered the fibres harsh and 

 brittle, and hard to spin, making the whole pro- 

 cess of manufacturing linen more expensive than 

 that used for cotton or wool. This form of 

 manufiicture for linen is now practiced in Europe. 

 The process of making fibrilia, as well as j'arns 

 and cloth, from the same, is entirely different from 

 any thing ever before used, and a corresponding 

 result is produced. Tlie albumen, gluten, and other 

 substances which pervade the filaments and fibres 

 on the original stalk, and which cement them to- 

 gether, are dissolved and removed by simple 

 solving processes, and the fibrils are separated to 

 their original length, of from one to two inches, 

 by a review of the solving process with a simple 

 mechanical one which fits the fibrils for spinning 

 on either cotton or woolen machinery, and which 

 makes it resemble those fibres both in color and 

 whiteness and length of staple. The old processes 

 of working flax would entirely fail in working 

 fibrilia, which can be prepared from either flax 

 or hemp, and in fact, many other fibrous sub- 

 stances. 



We are thus able to lay before you specimens 

 of fibrilia made from flax, which resemble cot- 

 ton and wool, and which can be used to great 

 advantage with either of these fibres. Fibrilia 

 spins like cotton, either alone or mixed, makes a 

 stronger and better yarn or cloth, and can be pro- 

 duced cheaper than cotton and can either be 

 raised or manufactured in New England in large 

 or small quantities, at a profit both to the farmer 

 and manufacturer. 



Flax can be readily raised either in the West 

 or East for the value of the seed alone, the fibre 

 being profit. At the present time, there are hun- 

 dreds of thousands of tons of flax annually raised 

 in the West simply for the seed, and the fibre is 

 thrown away. The soil of New England is well 

 adapted to the culture of flax, and besides the 

 crop of seed and fibre which may be saved, there 

 is a valuable food from the breaking of the un- 

 rolled straw which is rich in nutritious substances, 

 and which affords more than one-half of every 

 toH of straw as valuable food for cattle. 



If the eastern and north-western States were to 

 set aside one-quarter of their tillable lands for 

 flax for fibi-ilia, the product would be over 16,- 

 000,000 bales of 500 lbs. each, which would be 

 worth more then a billion of dollars. If Massa- 

 chusetts should raise and manufacture her owu 



