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Above: Mr. JVade H. Ramsey,
Resident Manager and V i c e-
President of the California Cen
tral Fibre Corporation at El
Centro, Calif., examines seed
flax growing in California’s Im
perial Valley.
On the cover: Bales of flax tow
being stored in one of our 30
tuarehouses at Ecusta. We use
over forty thousand tons of flax
tow a year.
FLAX
FIBRE
Since /937, A Source
of Extra Income for Cali
fornia’s Seed Flax Farmers
The year 1937 will long be
remembered by the flax
growers of California. Why? It
marked for them the beginning
of what is today adding more
than a third of a million dollars
to their annual income.
It was 1937 when the Cali
fornia Central Fibre Corpora
tion, a subsidiary of Ecusta lo
cated at El Centro in California’s
Imperial Valley, began purchas
ing flax straw and stock-piling
it for future use by Ecusta. Only
$7,830 was spent for Imperial
Valley flax straw that first year.
In 1938 the Valley flax grow
ers received more than $28,000
for their flax straw, but this was
also stock-piled. Then in Sep
tember 1939 Ecusta began full
time production of top-quality
cigarette paper made entirely
from seed flax tow. Thus be
gan two new businesses—each
dependent on the other — the
selling of flax straw by the Im
perial Valley flax growers and