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FLAX 



FLAX 



thread, carpet-yarns, fishing-lines and seine-twines 

 are products of the best American flax, and huck 

 toweling or crash from the tow. (Tow is the coarse 

 and broken material resulting from scutching.) 



As yet, manufacturers use the American-grown 

 flax fiber only for making the coarse grade of 

 cloth (crash, so - called "Russian linen," toweling). 

 All of the fiber for making the finer linens is im- 

 ported from Europe. The American farmer must 

 soon learn the necessity of producing flax with a 

 long-line fiber. In this work the various experi- 

 ment stations will prove a valuable source of aid. 



Binding twine. — The making of binding twine 

 from flax is a new industry. For this the flax does 

 not require retting. It is bought from the farmer 

 and delivered unthreshed, as it was cut and cured, 

 from the field to a baling station. The company 

 bales it and ships it to a warehouse to become thor- 

 oughly dry. When dry, the straw is passed through 

 a tempering tunnel, on an endless moving apron. 

 Here it is heated to drive off any excess moisture. It 

 next passes sidewise through a heading and break 

 machine. The straw comes out fluted, with the shives 

 broken, and falls on a moving platform which con- 

 veys it into a slowly revolving spiked apron. On the 

 moving apron a small quantity of heavy, coarse fiber 

 (similar to sisal) is added to give the twine sta- 

 bility. Prom the spiked apron it is removed by a 

 very rapidly revolving spiked apron which draws 

 the strand out and brings it to a common center, 

 where it is delivered into a tall, cylindrical basket. 

 These baskets of fiber are fed into other machines 

 which draw the strands out more and aid in remov- 

 ing the last of the shives, and which again deliver 

 the strands to baskets. From these the fiber is fed 

 into the twiner and skeiner, a machine which 

 twists the twine and reels it on large wooden 

 spools. These spools are taken to the bailers, where 

 the twine is reeled off and wound into balls. The 

 balls are then baled the same as other binding 

 twine. A tester takes an occasional ball and tests 

 its strength and length to see that the output is 

 held up to a good average. 



As yet, there is no cordage but binding twine 

 being manufactured. It is but a question of time 

 when American fiax will be manufactured into all 

 grades of cord and thread and rope. 



Miscellaneous uses. — For upholstering and similar 

 purposes, flax fiber is being used extensively in the 

 Northwest. The so-called tow mills receive the 

 straw from the farmers just as it comes from the 

 threshing machine, and put it up in bales and ship 

 it to the central market or factory. One extensive 

 industry is located in Minnesota. At this place the 

 fiber is chemically prepared and passed into layers 

 of different thicknesses. The thinner ones are sewed 

 between two pieces of building paper. Such mate- 

 rial is used for insulating, cold storage, refrigerator 

 cars, ice-boxes, and the like. 



Exhibiting. 



There has been as yet no attempt, so far as 

 the writer is aware, to gather the flax and its 

 various products (in process of manufacturing) for 

 exhibition purposes. At the Minnesota Experiment 



Station the writer is gathering samples of mate- 

 rial illustrative of the various steps in the develop- 

 ment of flax from the seed to the manufactured 

 products, with a view to having a connected museum 

 history of flax. Such an exhibit will be of immense 

 value from an educational standpoint, and would 

 very properly occupy museum space in any educa- 

 tional institution, at agricultural expositions and 

 fairs. It is seldom that anything but the seed is 

 exhibited. A few bundles of the mature straw are 

 often used for decoration. These are not generally 

 so labeled that the average visitor knows what they 

 are. Managers of expositions and fairs, as well 

 as exhibitors, have much to learn in improving the 

 manner of display. 



Markets. 



There are no special markets for flax. As a rule, 

 farmers do not hold their crop long after threshing. 

 They sell the seed to the local elevator. A few ship 

 direct to the factories. The great bulk of the straw 

 is burned. The grain companies buy flax seed as 

 they do other grain, and sell to the linseed mills 

 according to the standard grade and price. The 

 seed often is transferred directly to the consumer ; 

 at other times it is stored in terminal elevators. The 

 average farm price of flax for the past ten years 

 is $1,094 per bushel. The ten-year average Min- 

 neapolis price is $1,205 per bushel. 



Market grades of Minnesota commercial flax seed. 



No. 1 Northwestern. — Shall be mature, sound, 

 dry and sweet. It shall be northern-grown. The 

 maximum field-, stack-, storage- or other damaged 

 seed shall not exceed 12 per cent. The minimum 

 weight shall be fifty-one pounds to the measured 

 bushel of commercially pure flax. 



No. 1 flax seed. — No. 1 flax seed shall be north- 

 ern-grown, sound, dry and free from mustiness, and 

 carrying not more than 25 per cent of immature 

 or field-, stack-, storage- or other damaged flax 

 seed ; and it must weigh not less than fifty pounds 

 to the measured bushel of commercially pure seed. 



Rejected flux seed. — Flax seed that is bin-burnt, 

 immature, field-damaged or musty, and yet not to 

 a degree to be unfit for storage, and having a test 

 weight of not less than forty-seven pounds to the 

 bushel of commercially pure seed, shall be rejected. 



No-grade flax seed. — Flax seed that is damp, 

 warm, mouldy, very musty, or otherwise unfit for 

 storage, or having a weight of less than forty-seven 

 pounds to the measured bushel of commercially 

 pure seed, shall be no-grade. 



The above grades represent only one market. 

 The grades for other markets differ somewhat and 

 depend on the location. 



Literature. 



Textile Fibers, Maxwell ; Yearbook United States 

 Department Agriculture ; Fiber Investigations, 

 Reports, United States Department Agriculture, 

 Martin Dodge ; North Dakota and other State Ex- 

 periment Station Bulletins; Minnesota Plant Dis- 

 eases, E. M. Freeman ; Soils and Crops of the Farm, 

 Morrow and Hunt. 



