100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fMAHCH, 
THE PROGRESS OF FLAX CULTURE. 
IMPROVED MACHINERY. 
SANFORD &, MALLORY'S 
FLAX BRAKE. 
Tangled Straw Made Valuable. 
Neiv and Desirable Implement. 
THE STRAW STRAIGHTENER. 
While cotton held undisputed sway at the 
head of textile materials, it was difficult to 
attract public attention to tlie less apparent but 
rapidly increasing necessity for the more ex- 
tended culture of flax. For a long period the 
home-grown supply had each year been less 
adequate to meet the growing demand. Cheap 
eotton goods had supplanted homespun linen, 
and other crops had consequently taken the 
place of the small plots of flax which formerly 
yielded the home supply, and gave a small sur- 
plus for the factories. Although flax manufac- 
ture had not at all kept pace with other branches 
of mechanical industiy, nor with the require- 
ments of the country, yet manufacturers could 
not procure enough of the raw material for their 
own limited wants ; so that, even without the 
extraordinary demand created by the shorten- 
ing of the cotton supply in consequence of the 
war, there was pressing need for the extension 
of flax culture. One great obstacle however 
was to be first overcome. The old methods of 
preparing the fibre for market were tedious, ex- 
pensive, and unpleasant. Enterprising men ac- 
customed to moweis, reapers, threshing ma- 
chines, etc., could not be prevailed on to adopt 
the slow process of hand pulling, or to take hold 
of the antiquated handbrake and swingle, and 
hence where flax growing had been found pro- 
fitable for the sake of the seed alone, the straw 
was neglected and either burned, or suffered to 
accumulate in unsightly lieaps. About the time 
SAJTFORD & MALLORY'S PLAX BKAKE. 
the war broke out, and just when the need of 
improved machinery began to be most severely 
felt, the new and improved Flax Brake, invent- 
ed by Messrs. Sanford and Malloiy, was brought 
before the public. Its importance justified the 
favorable notice made of it at the time in the 
Agriculturist and other leading journals, and its 
subsequent successful working has more than 
confirmed the good opinion of it then enter- 
tained. Prominent manufacturers who have 
put these brakes to practical test for two or 
ijljree years, are unanimous in their testimony 
to its great superiority to the brakes formerly in 
use, both in the amount of work it performs, 
and in the saving of stock. Another feature of 
hardly less importance is the fact, that while the 
use of the old brake required skilled labor, and 
that even with this there was danger to life or 
limb of the operator, the new machine can be 
run with entire safety by any ordinary farm 
SANTORD & MALLORY'S 
hand. In the November Agriculturist is an 
account of its being successfully worked by the 
daughters of a gentleman who exhibited it at the 
New York State Fair. This enables the far- 
mers of a neighborhood who engage in raising 
flax, to unite in purchasing a brake to be run 
with horse power by themselves, and thus^ to 
turn their straw as well as seed to account. At 
present rates, the straw will give the largest re- 
turns, and none can afford to let it go to waste. 
Enterprising men are entering the business of 
flax dressing, contracting for the straw and pre- 
paring to dress it for the manufacturers' use, 
and there can be little doubt that they will find 
it most profitable. In France this preparation 
of fibre forms a distinct branch of labor, en- 
trusted to men called liniers, and by this division 
of labor the work can be more easily and suc- 
cessfully conducted. The new machinery will 
do much toward establishing such an arrange- 
ment in this country to the benefit of all parties 
concerned. 
Hardly second in importance to the improved 
brake is a new machine, called the " Straw 
Straightener," just brought out by the same 
inventors, for the purpose of preparing tangled 
straw for the brake, and thus making available 
the supply which is raised only for seed and 
threshed out by horses or otherwise. We give 
an illustration of the implement above; It con- 
sists of a revolving skeleton cylinder, armed 
with teeth set at a proper angle, which take 
hold of the tangled straw as it leaves the feed- 
ing board. The top of this cylinder is enclosed 
by a concave cast iron cover, provided with 
groves through which the teeth of the cylinder 
run. At the rear of the machine opposite the 
middle of the cylinder and parallel with it, are 
two fluted rollers, between which the flax passes 
as it leaves the cylinder. These revolve a little 
faster than the cylinder, so that they slightly 
draw the flax over the teeth and through the 
grooves in the cover, and by this action, together 
with the revolving of the cylinder, the tangled 
straw is straightened and prepared to pass at 
riglit angles over the fluted rollers of the brake, 
so that it may be broken as perfectly as straight 
STRAW STRAIffHTENER. 
hand-pulled straw. This machine was visited 
by three editors of the American Agriculturist in 
company with several gentlemen engaged in the 
flax business, who examined it carefully while 
in operation, and all agreed as to its efficiency 
and great value. Perhaps the best evidence of 
its excellence is the fact, that fifteen of the ma- 
chines were at once ordered by manufacturers 
upon the first inspection, and before any cir- 
cular or advertisement of it had been issued. 
This implement is all the more valuable, be- 
cause it can be used as an adjunct, to prepare 
tangled straw for any style of brake now in use. 
Cotton was introduced because it was cheaper 
— not better — than flax, and now that by the 
aid of these iiuprovements flax can be produced 
cheaper than cotton, the scale must again turn, 
and those who engage in the business will reap 
the profits. Already since the introduction of 
these brakes, the production of dressed fibre 
has more than quadrupled, being 30,000,000 lbs. 
now, against 7,000,000 formerly. The seed alone 
will handsomely pay for raising a crop, leaving 
the lint to greatly increase the profit. The 
market can not be overstocked for years, as 
new uses are constantly calling for increased 
supply. A single India rubber belt manufac- 
turing company, in New York City, now use 
flax annually amounting to more than one 
seventh of the entire product of the whole 
country before the war ; they find it better than 
cotton, and will never return to their former 
method of manufacture. While those who now 
engage in flax raising and flax breaking, will 
reap splendid profits, the return of low prices 
will not ^ause failure, as the demand and price 
will inevitably continue remunerative. Thus 
a most inviting field is open for capital and 
enterprise, which for the good of the country as 
well as individual profit should be at once en- 
tered upon. 
Full and interesting details concerning the 
above machines are given in a pamphlet issued 
by the Sanford & Mallory Flax Machine Co., 
which may be obtained by addressing 
Mr. JOHN W. QUINCY, 
Treasurer, 98 William St., New Tork City. 
