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 No. 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 14 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 
No. 115 and the difference in the method of furnishing was in- 
sufficient to account for the difference in the two products. 
Test No. 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 \\ 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 beater furnish of one-third domestic flax straw, 
one-third mixed strings, and one-third board cuttings and sulphite 
screenings was washed and beaten in the following manner: The 
flax-straw stock was 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 
6 hours more. The furnish was sized and loaded in the regular 
manner. This stock was run over a 14-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 at this point by the officials of the Department of 
Agriculture and the fiber-board manufacturing company that the 
