14
PROGRESS REPORT OF THE FLAX COMMISSIONERS.

European flax and hemp. In the first place, the object to be attained in the two cases is different.
With flax, the object is to weaken the cement, and to remove a large portion of it; while with
Phormium, the only object would be to weaken slightly the cement to enable the fibrous bundles to be
split up more readily; and it is more than probable that mechanical means will be found for effecting
this without weakening the fibre or spoiling its colour.

In the next place, the cell walls of the ultimate fibres of Phormium are much more tender than,
and not much more than one-half as thick as those of flax or hemp, and they would therefore be more
readily weakened in the process; and, further, any colour imparted to flax by retting can be removed
by bleaching, while Phormium fibre will not stand the boiling in alkali necessary for that operation.
Also, the retting of European flax is the first step in its manufacture, and consequently if the crop is
spoiled by under or over retting, the loss is as small as possible, but with New Zealand flax we should
have had to incur the previous expense of machining, and the chances of spoiling would be greater.
However, as I have already hinted, a slight fermentation might be useful as a preservative, if means
can be found for accomplishing it without discolouring the fibre, or if a process can be found for
bleaching Phormium without the use of alkali, or long boiling in water.

BLEACHING AND DRYING.

I have said that the greater part of the tissue, and the whole of the gum, is removed by machining,
and the mucilage and bitter principle by soaking. The next step is to remove the green colour of those
parts of the tissue that still adhere to the fibre. This is accomplished by sun-bleaching. If the fibre,
after coming out of the water, is once dried, without exposure to the sun, it will dry green, which
colour it will retain for a great length of time if kept dry. This green colour is, however, no great
detriment, as it can at any time be removed by wetting the fibre and exposing it to the sun; and I
have not heard of any complaints from England on this score. Still, as it spoils the appearance of the
fibre, and as it will have to be removed some time or other, either by the manufacturer or by the pur-
chaser, it is better to do so at once. In summer, this is easily accomplished, by spreading it thinly on
grass for four or five days, then turning it over and letting it lie two or three days more; when, if
dry, it will be ready for storing; but in winter or in wet weather a much longer time is necessary.
The green colour is removed most quickly by alternately wetting the fibre and letting it dry in the
sun several times. In the summer, this is accomplished naturally by the dews. If the fibre has dried
green, and there is no moisture, a long exposure to the sun is necessary to bleach it, while on the other
hand if it is kept constantly wet it retains its colour much more obstinately than when alternately wet
and dry. During the winter months flax never gets thoroughly dry on the ground, even in fine
weather; and in wet weather it has often to be left on the bleaching-green for several weeks, and even
then green hanks will be found in it. To obviate this, after the fibre has lain for a fortnight or three
weeks on the ground, it has to be hung on wires or poles to dry, when the wind, sun, and rain will
finish the bleaching nearly as well as in summer. My experience is that well-dressed soaked flax may
be safely left out for three weeks without ever getting dry, but that in about five weeks it begins to
lose strength. Badly-dressed flax will deteriorate much sooner, for wherever the tissue is left adhering
to the fibre putrefaction soon commences.

Each row of wires should consist of three arranged in a triangle, so as to keep the flax open and
let the air in. The rows should be ten or twelve feet apart, so as to allow a cart or dray to go between
them. I find that a ton of fibre may be spread on about a mile of wires, so that in winter a mill would
require a mile and a half or two miles of them, which would cover from two to two and a half acres of
ground. In summer they will not be used at all. About fifteen acres of bleaching ground will also
be necessary for a mill running three or four machines.

Considerable storage room is absolutely essential to the successful carrying on of a mill, for often,
after a succession of wet weather, a few dry days may come, and eight or ten tons or more of fibre may
require to be stored almost at the same time; while without large stores the scutching and packing
would have to be stopped. In my opinion a mill ought always to have about ten tons of fibre in store,
and to do this in winter would require storage room for from fifteen to twenty tons, or about 12,000
cubic feet.

SCUTCHING.

The next process is that of scutching, the object of which is to straighten out and clean the fibre
thoroughly from the dry pieces of tissue still remaining on it, as well as from the dust and dirt picked
up in the drying-ground. There is perhaps no part of our machinery that wants more improvement
than the scutch, for not only do the present ones clean the flax badly, but they also make more tow, or
in other words, break more fibre than necessary. The great length of our fibre makes it much more
difficult to scutch than European flax, which is only from two to three feet in length; and it would
much facilitate the process if the hanks were cut in two, so as to make it into lengths of four or five
feet; but I do not know what value is attached to length of fibre in England. The barrel-scutch
is much better adapted for our long flax than the arm scutch, and consequently is almost everywhere
used. The faults of the present scutches appear to me to be-first, that the hardest blow is delivered
in the middle of the hank, where it is least wanted; second, that the ends of the hank hang away from
the scutch, and do not get properly cleaned; third, that the ends of some of the fibres get round the
arms or beaters of the scutch, and so get drawn out of the hands of the scutcher; and fourth, that the
hanks are not sufficiently opened, and the outsides get well beaten while the inside is untouched. To
try to remedy these faults, I am having an iron scutch made like a large scraping drum, with diagonal
beaters, and I propose to make it revolve the opposite way to the usual one, and scutch over the top.

BALING.

After the fibre is scutched, it is ready for baling at once.
Such is all the information I am able to give about the manufacture of New Zealand flax. The
newness of the subject must be my excuse for the many mistakes which I have probably made; and I