UTILIZATION OF AMERICAN FLAX STRAW. 15 



for 15 hours, after which it was put through the board calender 

 (% 4). 



The thin or light-weight sheets were too soft, those of medium 

 weight satisfactory, and the heavy ones a little too brittle. It should 

 be stated that the stock needs to be reduced to different fiber lengths, 

 depending on the weight of board desired. Those boards of this test 

 which were of medium weight and were satisfactory were sold with 

 the company's regular stock and no complaint was received from them. 



Test Xo. 118. — A test was then made, using the large beater and 

 regular wet machine, employing the same furnish as in test No. 115, 

 but the charge of mixed strings was added unwashed to the charge 

 of flax straw, which had been washed for 3 hours. This combined 

 charge was washed for 1^ hours more, when the furnish of board 

 cuttings was added and the charge sized, loaded, and beaten off in a 

 total of 11 hours, or 11 hours after the addition of the strings. The 

 board was tough, but much too soft. The old saying that " the paper 

 is made in the beater " seems to apply equally well to fiber-board 

 manufacturing, as the furnish in this test was the same as in test 

 Xo. 115 and the difference in the method of furnishing was in- 

 sufficient to account for the difference in the two products. 



Test Xo. 125. — A test on the large mill machines was now made, 

 including the bleaching in the company's large bleach boiler. Three 

 thousand pounds of the baled straw were pitched over carefully 

 with fine pitchforks and freed from chaff, which amounted to 33 

 per cent of the original straw. The 2,000 pounds of sieved straw 

 were charged into the boiler, together with 14 per cent of burned 

 lime and 800 gallons of water. The charge was heated by direct 

 steam to 105 pounds pressure in 1^ hours and maintained at this 

 pressure for 15 hours, after which the pressure was relieved in 1^ 

 hours and the charge removed. For some reason the stock did not 

 appear quite as well reduced as was the bleach carried out under the 

 same conditions in the smaller boiler at Cumberland Mills, Me. 



A 500-pound heater furnish of one-third domestic flax straw, 

 one-third mixed strings, and one-third board cuttings and sulphite 

 -< xeenings was washed and beaten in the following manner: The 

 flax-straw stork whs first washed in the beater for 5 hours, when 

 the mixed-string stock was added, after having been washed for \\ 

 hours. The charge was beaten 4 hours, when the one-third of board 

 cuttings and sulphite screenings was added and the whole beaten 

 <; hours more. The furnish was sized and loaded in the regular 

 manner. This stock was run over a 44-inch wet machine, loft dried, 

 and calendered, giving a board which, although not perfectly satis- 

 factory, was readily used in the trade 



It was realized ;il this point by the officials of the Department of 



Agriculture and the fiber-board manufacturing company that, the 



