UTILIZATION OF AMERICAN. FLAX STRAW. 13 
Stock from bleaches Nos. 203 and 204 was beaten and washed 7J 
hours, after which the washed stock from bleach No. 202 was added 
and the whole beaten and washed for 18 hours. The feeling and 
appearance of the stock improved during the whole beating and 
washing period, but it w T as still apparent that not enough wood was 
being removed. Competent employees judged that there were 250 to 
300 pounds of stock in the beater at this point, which would represent 
a yield of 40 to 47 per cent of the sieved straw, or 26 to 30.5 per cent 
of the original dry weight of straw. 
The stock was sized with 1 per cent of size and 3 per cent of 
alum and run over the Fourdrinier paper machine at a speed of 91 
feet per minute. The stock acted very well on the machine, but, as 
in the previous test, the sheet became brittle on drying. It was 
evident that a still harder or different bleach was necessary or that 
the manner of beating and washing should have been different. 
MILL TESTS ON THE MANUFACTURE OF FIBER BOARD. 
When the experimental work on the utilization of flax straw in 
the manufacture of paper had reached this point, there was a great 
uneasiness in the fiber-board industry concerning the supply of 
foreign raw material because of the outbreak of the European 
war. As previously noted, there are imported into the United States 
annually about 7,000 tons of flax waste derived from the foreign tex- 
tile industries, which are used almost exclusively in the manufacture 
of the counter-board grade of fiber boards. These counter boards 
are used chiefly for the manufacture of counters and toes for the 
stiffening of the heels and toes of shoes. 
The price of this flax waste has ranged from $25 to $29 per ton 
from 1908 to 1912, inclusive, and the average price in 1913 was $36.50. 
The waste had been constantly deteriorating in quality, until the same 
grade was 20 to 25 per cent poorer for fiber-board manufacture than 
in 1908-9. Soon after war was declared the available supply of flax 
waste was bought up and stored for future manufacture, and the 
importations were greatly curtailed. Finally, the waste was with- 
drawn from quotation, after reaching prices of about $65 per ton. 
It was thought that if American flax straw could be substituted for 
the imported waste, this would be the most propitious time to induce 
manufacturers to cooperate in the work and establish a market for 
this crop waste. One of the leading counter-board factories signi- 
fied its willingness to cooperate in the project and kindly placed 
at the disposal of the Bureau of Plant Industry many of its regular 
machines and its semicommercial testing equipment. 
The semicommercial testing equipment consisted of a direct steam, 
iron, rotary bleach boiler, about 2 feet in diameter by 5 feet in length ; 
