July i, 1890,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
51 
Europe lying between Edinburgh and the southern coast 
of the Island of Sicily. It therefore grows in an iu- 
tertropioal climate as well as extends into and through- 
out the New Zealand province of Otago, which has 
a winter of frost and snow very similar to our 
own in Norfolk. 
A short time ago I entered into correspondence 
with Mr. Daniel Morris, the Assistant-Curator of the 
Royal Gardens at Kew, asking information as to this 
))lant. I received most courteous replies, and every aid 
that could be afforded by him. During the last week 
in February I called at Kew, and was shown by him 
the plants growing in the open air in the gardens, as 
well as in the temperate greenhouses, and I was also 
shown the scutched fibre and manufactured products 
made from the plant, and was referred for further 
information to the work issued by the New Zealand 
Government, written by Sir James Hector, which can 
be purchased at the office of the Agent-General of 
New Zealand, at No. 13, Victoria Street, London, S. W., 
for 2s., and I refer all persons who may take an in- 
terest in this matter to that work. 
At Kew, I found the plant a most magnificent one, 
with broad rush leaves, even at this period of the 
year, of a green as briliant as holly, but of a lighter 
hue. The leaves were on some plants at least eight feet 
long. The largest clump of plants at Kew was pro- 
tected by tying the outer leaves together so as to 
shelter the inner ones, but about six other clumps of 
plants were wholly unprotected. I was informed that 
the oldest clump had been in the gardens for fifteen 
years, and had never been injuried by frost. The 
other plants had not been there quite so long ; but, 
although left quite unprotected, had never been 
injured by frost. 
I find from Sir James Hector’s book, and the in- 
formation given me by Mr. Morris, that there are 
nearly eighty varieties of this plant growing naturally 
in New Zealand, that each variety grows in a different 
situation, soil, and climate, some in swamps, some 
high on the mountains in the northern island, and 
in every variety of soil and situation. The plant has 
evidently the capability of readily adapting itself to 
every soil and climate wiihin a wide range. It is 
considered to be descended from one parent variety 
only, and, therefore, will probably readily adapt itself 
to other soils and climates within a similar range on 
this side of the globe, as it has done at the Antipodes. 
The plant, although the one main variety is most 
prevalent in swamps, by the side of running water, 
or where the swamp has had the stagnant waters 
drained off from it, also grows, as do other varieti s, 
on every soil, from the lightest sand to the heaviest 
clay. These plants vary in length of leaf according 
to the more or less fertility of the soil on which 
they grow and the variety of plant prevalent thereon. 
The plant has from time immemorial had its fibres 
extracted from the leaves by the native Maories, 
and been used for weaving into various kinds of cloths 
and for very various purposes ; but the process of 
extracting the fibre was a very slow one, and the 
article could only be produced in small quantities and 
at a high cost. 
From the time of the early settlement of the colony 
down to recent times, machines have been invented 
for preparing this fibre for the various purposes for 
which it is available. Within recent years several 
effective machines have been constructed, and are now 
in operation in New Zealand. By this means fibre 
of several different qualities have been produced, and 
mainly exported to England. The lowest quality of 
fibre for rope-making is saleable in England for 
about £20 per ton, and of this about three-fourths of 
a ton can be produced from an acre of the flax plants, 
with about an equal weight of tow suitable and sale- 
able for paper-making. But by a more careful process 
and selection of the best leaves, fibre of a silky, 
lustrous kind can be extracted which is of the value 
of from £50 to £70 per ton, and the very best silky, 
lustrous fibre made by the natives by hand is worth 
from £70 to £100 per ton. 
It is not positively known for what purposes this 
fibre is used, but is believed to be used in Englend 
in the manufacture of silks and poplins. I think I 
have stated sufficient facts to show that if the fibre 
can be produced in New Zealand, where unskilled 
labour is paid at the rate of 8s. per day of eight 
hours, bear the cost of freight to England, and then 
is sold in England for use in manufactures either of 
rope, paper, or woven fabrics so as to yield a profit 
to its producers in New Zealand, it can be produced so 
as to yield a larger profit iu England, where the market 
for it exists, if the plant can endure the English climate. 
That seems to be the only difficulty which will have 
to be surmounted, and that can only be decided after 
experiments in the possibility of growing it here have 
been made. 
In Sir James Hector’s book it is mentioned that* 
experimentally, one p'ot was planted in the Domain 
Garden, at Christchurch, alongside of other plots, the 
plant having been obtained from the warmer climate 
of the northern island; and, while adjacent plots 
bore the cold climate uninjured, this one plot was 
totally destroyed by frost, evidently succumbing to 
the colder climate to which it had been introduced 
without having become first acclimatised. In making 
experiments it will, therefore, be requisite to obtain 
the seeds or plants either from the parts of the 
southern island which have a cold winter like our 
own, or from the mountain sides, which lie at such 
a height above the level of the sea as to have about 
the same climate as that existing at the southern 
end of the middle island of New Zealand, and 
the seeds and plants should be of the varieties 
which in New Zealand have proved capable of sus- 
taining the colder winter climates existing thereon. 
Although very little artificial cultivation has existed 
in New Zealand, what has taken place has been by 
planting off-sets or side-shoots taken off old plants in 
the same way as the sugar growers plant their sugar- 
cane plantations. 
It will be requisite, probably, to commence in 
England with plants raised from seed, because no stock 
of plants exist in England ; and this will at first be a 
difficulty, because it is said that when grown from seed 
taken from a specific variety of plants the produce does 
not come true to that variety. It is said that the plant 
has been introduced for some years into the southern 
island, but I have no information as to its growth there. 
When artificially grown in New Zealand, the plants 
have been planted at distances of six feet between 
the rows, with an interval of six feet between the 
plants in the rows, requiring about 1000 plants to the 
acre ; but in some cases they are planted with intervals 
of three and four feet respectively, requiring a cor- 
respondingly larger number. To produce from seed 
it will be requisite that the plants shall be from 
three to four years old before they arrive at maturity. 
To solve the question of the power of acclimatisation 
in England, it will only be requisite to have small 
plantations of seedlings in ^corners of fields, and if they 
will endure the climate for the first two years, then 
to transplant them into regular plantations, the early 
nursery pfiauta^ions being more closely grown than 
the later one, and therefore occupjying comparatively 
very small space. 
If the plant can be grown in England, it will be 
very suitable to be grown on lands held by the laud 
owner in hand, like the plantations where underwood 
and hop poles are grown, and, like those plantations, 
the flax will make game coverts of the beet description. 
The plantation, when established, will require no 
annual labour expenditure, except to keep the ground 
free from weeds, to cut the leaves, and scutch out 
the fibre. 
All that can be realised above this cost will be of 
the nature of annual rent, realised out of (he plan- 
tation by the landowner. 
It will probably be more suitable for growth on the 
fen lauds than for any other, but there are varieties 
in New Zealand which grow on every description of 
soil although not so productive. 
Having launched this question before the county, I 
think I may fairly leave it for the future in the 
hands of the landowners and tenants who are chiefly 
ioterested, merely suggesting that it is • case to be 
