There is not to-day any large outlet with us for such a fiber as can be produced from the western straw as now grown, but if adequate protection be granted to the would-be producers of woven linens, there would be at once a place for a cheap homegrown fiber for weaving yarns, and I believe even that this fiber, when produced in quantity, can be sold at a price which will admit of its exportation, and it will compete successfully abroad with the European grown fiber.

The tangled straw, if properly retted and cleaned, may be adapted for bagging, binder twine, and very coarse twines; I can not speak with any definite knowledge on this point, as I have never seen any properly-retted tangled straw, and have therefore no practical knowledge of its capabilities. It is absolutely necessary that the straw be kept straight that it may be worked for the best uses of which it is capable; a method of stripping the seed which will admit of this is absolutely essential. Yours, truly,

(Signed)

CHARLES RICHARDS DODGE,

JOHN H. Ross.

Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

From Mr. Edwin A. Hartshorn, of Schaghticoke, N. Y., than whom the American farmer has no better friend or the theory of protection in its broadest sense no better advocate, some valuable suggestions are received. As a part of the letter referred to hemp matters, only the portions relating to flax are produced here. Mr. Hartshorn says:

The Western flax straw which remains after thrashing the seed, as at present grown, is of great value if it were not literally cut into pieces about two inches long by thrashing out the seed in a wheat-thrasher. As it is now thrashed it is practically worthless for spinning purposes. If it were thrashed in a suitable thrasher, which costs no more than by the present method, the fiber would be valuable.

I send by this mail in separate inclosure a sample of flax straw from Clay County, Iowa, which is cut short by the thrasher. You will observe that a few stalks have escaped destruction. The writer picked out a few of these stalks and retted them by our patent process in three hours, and cleaned them in our hemp-brake, and produced a fair quality of spinning tow, a sample of which is also sent you in the same package. The tow is worth 5 cents a pound on the market, and will spin into a level yarn for all coarse purposes, such as binder twine, thrashers' cordage, etc.

I agree fully with the statement that if the present flax straw, grown for seed, was only properly retted by water on the ground (or by my patent serial process, without chemicals) it would enter into many coarse goods, such as crash, twines, etc. When this position has been obtained there is no question but what the fiber would be under better treatment and capable of spinning into finer goods for twines and woven fabrics. The writer has thrashed thousands of tons of flax straw by machinery without breaking a fiber in the process. An inexpensive additional appliance for the ordinary wheat-thrasher could be supplied and thrashing-machines put upon the market, adjustable so as to thrash wheat as at present, or thrash flax in the proper way. The adjustment of thrashing flax is as follows: In the place of the ordinary cylinder carrying teeth or prongs, a cylinder of equal size should be placed, with bars of iron bolted upon it lengthways about 6 inches apart; to act as beaters. These bars should be half an inch thick by three-fourths inch width. Two pairs of rollers to crush the bolls of the flax should be placed in front of the cylinder. The cylinder, with its beater-bars revolving rapidly as the flax comes from the second pair of rollers, will beat off the seed or bolls which escape the crushing process. The first pair of rollers should have a very shallow groove, which will be barely sufficient to grip the flax straw and draw it in, but not enough to prevent the crush

ing of the bolls.

The second pair of rollers should have the least possible groove, that flax will not slip between them, but at the same time they should be almost smooth.

In regard to duty on flax and hemp fiber, I would favor a specific duty, sufficient to cover the additional cost of labor under our industrial system. The manufacturers should have a specific duty sufficient to cover the duty on the so-called “raw material," and also an ad valorem duty of 50 per cent. to cover the extra cost of manufacturing in this country. As you probably know, the entire flax-spinning industry of the country has asked for an increase of duty on woven linen coarser than "sixteen hundred," which we ought to have.

Here is added testimony from another well-known spinner, of Webster, Mass.:

STEVENS LINEN WORKS, Webster, Mass., February 6, 1890.

DEAR SIR: We have not used any flax grown in the United States since 1881, and but a little since say 1875. The most of the United States flax we have used came from Washington County, N, Y., and that vicinity, although some years ago we worked some from Ohio. If well retted and worked it is worth more than the quality that we import from Russia.

If the Western flax straw was grown a little less for seed and more for fiber, and kept straight, fairly retted, broken, and scutched, it would answer our purpose.

I can hardly tell whether the labor prices would make flax line profitable or not, but should think an article of tow might be produced at a profit, though the demand would be limited

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I am, yours truly,

CHARLES RICHARDS DODGE,

Special Agent, Department of Agriculture.

E. P. MORTON, Agt.

In connection with the question of fiber preparation, brief reference may be made to the process of Mr. S. S. Boyce, of New York City, for cleaning flax without first submitting the straw to the process of retting, thereby obtaining the fiber at once. Samples of flax so treated were shown me by Mr. Boyce in December, 1888, and a small series was subsequently sent to Paris with the fiber exhibit, though the samples were not wholly satisfactory. After a year's further experiment a number of samples from different lots of fiber produced in quantity have been submitted which promise better results. It should be borne in mind, however, that the only practical trial of a fiber is to test it in manufacture. This I understand is being done with a quantity of the fiber produced by this process, the results of which will be awaited with interest.

In a communication from Mr. Boyce, submitting these samples, some remarks on western flax straw are made, from which brief extracts are reproduced.

For paper stock no better material than this flax straw can be desired, save that the farmer stands in his own light in not preparing his land to cut the straw close in order to give a greater length. If properly thrashed it would be doubled in value. And if properly prepared (in the subsequent operations), would furnish a fiber worth $75 to $100 per ton for coarse weaving, which would take it away from the papermaker who objects to stock costing over $50 per ton. For binder twine, bagging, salt bags, and coarse products generally, the straw as now grown for seed may be adopted and supplied with the simple modifications of (1) Cutting close to the ground. (2)

Thrashing without shortening or breaking and tangling. (3) Using imported towproducing machinery. Of course, sowing a larger quantity of seed is recommended, and cutting or pulling and binding the straw are desirable.

Mr. H. C. Putnam, president of the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Linen Company, in reply to a question relative to the value of the western flax straw per ton, as at present produced, makes this statement:

If a machine can dress it in the condition it comes from the thrashing machine and save, say 500 pounds of fiber from each 2,000 pounds of straw, it would be worth not less than $25 a ton net as common tow. Flax like sample (a nice product) is worth for spinning 7 and 8 cents per pound. If straw is cut and bound, kept straight, and properly retted, it is worth more per ton,-greater product and better fiber.

The following is an extract received from Mr. John Heany, of Buckley, Ill. :

In 1865 I was seventeen years of age, superintending a flax mill in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. The price of fiber was 25 cents per pound; previous year it was 30 cents per pound. I bought the mill. The tariff on foreign fibers was reduced through the influence of the spinners, and our raw material fell to 12 cents per pound. They called our fiber raw material, when the truth is it cost more to produce one pound of flax fiber than for the spinner to take our raw material and manufacture a pound of cloth. I was paying farmers $15 per acre for land on which to raise flax, and employing from twenty to thirty hands. The result was, in 1870, I had to leave my mill and come west to Illinois, where I became engaged in making tow from the flax as grown for seed by farmers on their new land. The tow was used for the manufacture of bagging to cover cotton bales. I was doing well at making tow, and thought, if they would let the tariff alone, I could make some money. But it was not to be. The tariff was taken off jute butts, and I was out again. The result was that millions of tons of flax straw were burned in the West every year, when it could just as well have been utilized for bagging. The South would not have been the losers, because they were paid cotton prices for bagging that only cost them about 5 cents per pound. I would say now that it looks as though the tariff was going to be reduced on manilla, sisal and jute, and flax and hemp. Instead of being reduced it should be increased on a par, at least, with the manufactured material, such as bags, cloth and yarn and twines. We could then have a show to produce our own fibers and on our own land, where the manufactured article is consumed.

Here is an extract from a letter received from Mr. John Hinde, of the A. H. Hart Company, of New York City:

After further considering your question, "What are your views regarding the advantage of re-establishing the flax-fiber industry among the western farmers, and what means would be most likely to aid in bringing about the cultivation of flax for fiber," we wish to add to our former communication that the samples of Michigan flax sent you were grown and worked by Messrs. J. & J. Livingston, Baden, Ontario, who have built a mill at Yale, Mich., where they will have fully 100 tons of dressed flax from last year's crop. This flax straw (800 tons) was pulled from the ground by hand, as all straw must be if used for fine spinning.

The western farmer, before going to the expense of pulling straw, must know that he will find a market, and in order to supply this, mills must be built, and, if the mills are successful, they must be controlled by thoroughly competent and experienced men. Messrs. Livingston have been successful workers of flax in Canada for over twenty-five years where they are now running twenty mills, and annually sow 5,000 acres to flax, and work as much more grown by farmers. Messrs. Livingston have demonstrated that they can grow as good flax for fiber in Michigan as can be produced in Canada, and we believe they would remove their entire plant to the

Western States if inducement sufficient to cover the expense was offered them. One mill could be moved and located at a time, and we firmly believe that within five years flax would be one of the largest and best paying crops in the Western States, as it now is in Upper Ontario.

We will be pleased to co-operate with you in all things that will promote the flax industry in this country.

Mr. E. Bosse, of Green Bay, Wis., in a recent communication to the Department, makes the following interesting statements:

The 6 acres of flax grown on my farm last year, and referred to in the Gazette of Green Bay, February 3, were sown the 1st of May, 1889, with one-half bushel per acre of Belgian seed (which I consider the very best for this country). I pulled it by hand a little before ripe; let it dry standing on the ground for eight days; then bound it with rye straw, and sheltered. I thrashed it by hand and spread it on land already harvested, and let it ret by dews and rains; then stacked it in the barn again, but bound this time with its own straw. I scutched it by the old system (breaker and knives, still the best in use when the work is done by skilled scutchers). The soil is a black loam mixed with black sand about 10 inches deep, with red clay for subsoil. The result was as follows:

Sowed 9 bushels Belgian seed, at $1.50 per bushel..

$13.50

32.59

5.00

20.65

19.40

120.83

10.00

30.00

251.97

$60.00

12.00

408.98 480.98

229.01

600 pounds tow, 2 cents per pound............

3,718 pounds fiber, at 11 cents per pound, as offered by manufacturers, Ross, Turner & Co., Boston

Net profit......

I think we can estimate this as an average crop, with careful preparation of the ground (which I described in a preceding letter) and well conducted operations in retting and scutching.

One other system of retting is by water, or keeping the straw, after thrashed, in running or stagnant water, and let it remain until the woody part of the plant will break when folded it a little and the fiber is easily detached. This way of retting the flax is certainly the very best of all, and will, in my opinion, never be profitably replaced by scientific systems. Science may shorten the time of operation, but can not compare in good result with the silent and perfect work of nature in this proceeding. The water process is a little more expensive than the dew or grass retting, as it is called here, because it requires some previous accommodations and more labor, but, though it produces no larger weight of fiber, it is more reliable, as one can control the full progress of the operation until the proper and desirable degree of retting is attained. Besides, it gives fiber which always find a ready market and commands higher prices.

You will see by the figures relative to the six acres that I grow flax both for fiber and seed, and that the weight of fiber per acre is about 620 pounds. I could grow flax for fiber only, and so make a finer grade, according to the wants of manufacturers, but the result in product for the grower should be very near the same. What helps

considerably the present possibilities of raising flax for fiber with success in this country, in competition with the low wages paid in Europe, is that our land is cheap; that with so vast an area suitable for flax raising, our lands are now and fresh for that textile, and are capable of yielding a much larger yield than the artificially manured lands of the old continent. Also, where twenty-five or thirty years ago our good flaxretted straw in Belgium gave us 25 per cent. of fiber, it yields now from 16 to 20 per cent., with great depreciation in quality. I raised last year (and could hardly fail to raise the same) such quality of fiber as was never surpassed anywhere, and obtained from the same raw flax as that I send you to-day a yielding of 31 per cent. of fiber, for which I never heard of a precedent in the old country.

All the States and Territories north of the thirty-sixth parallel are fitted for the culti vation of flax for fiber, except those Western lands where there is lack of rain. As generally flax grows better in low lands and damp, temperate climate, I believe Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa would be the States producing invariably the most and best quality of fiber.

The following extract is from a letter received from William Rutherford, of the California Cotton Mills Company, East Oakland, Cal. :

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About two years ago we interested some farmers to grow trial lots of flax especially for the fiber, and to a certain extent the experiment was successful. In the prosecution of this industry we received sample lots of flax from Oregon and Idaho which were good specimens of the fiber, and proved conclusively that the best quality of flax could be produced in these regions. That from Moscow, Nez Perces County, Idaho, was excellent.

It would seem from the foregoing that no further testimony is nec essary to show that flax culture can be made an American industry in the near future, though the farmers and the manufacturers must work together to bring it about. As to the question of "encouragement" through legislation, I think with Mr. Turner that one form of legisla tion desirable would be an appropriation for purposes of experiment by the Department of Agriculture for the practical demonstration of the possibilities that have been briefly considered in the pages of this report. I will therefore leave the subject at this point for the present.