2
FLAX EXPANSION
to meet Ecusta’s needs as the young
company grew from four machines
to eight, and on to nine. Dependence
on European flax as a raw material
was never even considered.
Yet, the early days of Ecusta
were a time of major efforts toward
development of flax strains suitable
for agricultural conditions of farm
lands closer to North Carolina.
Agronomists with state and federal
agencies worked in parallel with
Ecusta efforts to produce a strain
that would take to the Southeast’s
soil, water and climatic conditions.
Had this been successful it not only
would have introduced a new linseed
oil business, it would have sharply
reduced the cost of shipping flax
cross country to Pisgah Forest.
The farm efforts came and went.
The twin greenhouses used for flax
experiments turned to growing
flowers that decorated offices and
brought cheer to the sick. Ecusta
had entered a period in which ex
perimentation no longer looked
toward changes in the basic product;
but in how to adjust the pulping and
papermaking steps to the various
differences between lots, a pilot
plant handsheet procedure that still
plays a role in quality control and
how to modify the pulping operation
to prevent the spillage of cooking
liquor to the river. The latter, long-
term research that was plagued by
the peculiar nature of the long-
fibred flax, led to Ecusta’s success
ful first step in pollution abatement.
Meanwhile, the source of flax
was not of much concern, except
to the small number of persons
directly involved with its procure
ment. The shipping personnel who
moved bales in and out of storage,
the workers in all phases from the
digesters through bleaching and
refining and papermaking, quality
control throughout, and through
inspection and finishing and onto
the shipping personnel who loaded
the boxcars and trucks with pallets
of cigarette paper, as well as those
persons selling the products and
managing the operations, took it
pretty much for granted that the
warehouses would be kept full;
all that was needed to keep things
going for years ahead.
Today, that picture is almost
totally reversed. In order to solidify
its position with flax as a basic raw
material, Ecusta has expanded
facilities to include procurement
and processing operations in the
upper midwest, adding a new dimen
sion to the Ecusta operation; Ecusta
has inaugurated a worldwide flax
buying program that required setting
up a new processing operation
at Pisgah Forest to chop the retted
fibre; and, once again, Ecusta is
supporting the efforts of agron
omists who hope to develop strains
of flax happy with the southeastern
environment. The response to
changes in the flax situation was
orderly, brought on by two principal
factors: a shrinking supply and in
creased needs.
+-
Flax laden trucks groan under the
weight of their loads at the new
processing plant where tonnage is
determined by truck scales. Brought
Frank J. McGibboney, Ecusta’s
director of production, examines
flax as it appears when withdrawn
from the field, with seeds and roots
intact. Use of the seed is compara
tively recent in mankind’s long
history of cultivating flax. Linens,
among the oldest fabrics known
to man, are mentioned frequently
in the Bible. Linen-wrapped mummies
4,000 years old have been found in
Egypt. Flax cigarette paper has been
made over the years in many parts
of the world from linen rag, yet it
was new technology that allowed
the pulping of the flax plant without
previous chemical processing
(retting), and thus made possible
the manufacture of flax paper at
Pisgah Forest.
Due to changes with the California
flax situation, Ecusta’s domestic
source of flax became concentrated
in the Dakotas, Minnesota and
southern Canada, where for years
Ecusta had been supplied with flax
bought and processed by the field
organization of Archer-Daniels-
Midland. This reduced not only the
acreage available for Ecusta’s needs,
but those of the principal cigarette
paper competitor, the Peter J.
Schweitzer division of Kimberly-
Clark. It was in response to this
competitive situation that Ecusta
bought the flax procurement portion
of ADM’s field organization, adding
a network of flax crop specialists
and support personnel to Ecusta’s
from flax stacks in the fields, the
bales soon will be unloaded for pro
cessing and shipment to Pisgah
Forest.