Gathering Kenaf Seed

New Stage In New Guinea Industry

From Our Own Correspondent

Moresby, June 20

n'EAR Moresby this month, 1 mechanical harvesting of Kenaf seed began. This is believed to e the first operation of its kind in le world. This also marks an im ortant stage in the establishment f the Kenaf fibre industry in apua-New Guinea.

The locale is the Agriculture departments nursery beside the aloki River, 14 miles from town, ’he Kenaf plots are laid out on ivel ground, formerly part of chimmer Airstrip during the Paci c War.

Recent world shortages of fibres, nd Australian requirements of bre products, such as woolpacks, ornsacks, etc., highlight the im ortance of this venture to Aus •alia’s self-sufficiency. It is believed lat the installation of machinery litable for the production of bags nd similar containers from Kenaf bre would follow its availability on le Australian market. Apart from .ustralian needs, Kenaf can be a ood dollar-earner.

Kenaf seed from Cuba, landed in le Territory nearly two years ago t a cost of five dollars per pound, ; now unobtainable from outside

sources, and the Laloki experiment is aimed at ensuring local supplies, The estimated yield per acre, through mechanical harvesting, is about 250 lb.

At present the machine in use on the site is an American John Deere 12A Combine Harvester, a type which has been successfully used on many crops, including a satisfactory harvesting of flax in Australia; and the P. & N.G. Department of Agriculture plan to try it out on further crops. „ . . . .

HTHE overall height of the har- A vester exceeds fifteen feet. It has been modified by fitting a false axle about four feet below the original, which allows the cutter tray to operate more than six feet above the ground. The diameter of the overhead reel, which feeds the crop into the cutter tray, has been increased from five to nine feet. Pos-

sible points of strain have been reinforced so that the machine may be dragged through the coarse stalks, half an inch to one-and-a half inches thick.

Some of the unshielded moving parts tend to foul when working on very tall stands of dry stalks. Be coming entangled, these quickly conyert into tough balls of fibre, impeding the action of the machine.

The highest plots of Kenaf have been allowed to grow only because recent rain has delayed harvesting, When the cutter tray is operating five feet high on plantings five months old, the harvester works efficiently without fouling, American fibre and harvest mach nery experts have commented favourably. One of them said it worked better than anyone had a right to expect! But spares are difficult to obtain. The officer work ing on the project hopes he will be

able to get a quantity of the parts most likely to be required.

The tractor, an International W 6, has also been modified. An early experiment with the harvester, bringing its coupling down to the level of the tractor drawbar, was unsuccessful. Then it was decided

to attach a second drawbar to the tractor, just behind the seat. Al though this arrangement does not conform to accepted practice advo cated by the makers of farming machinery, results have been satis factory.

All the modifications have been

carried out by the Department ol Works on the advice of Agricultural Officers on the job.

THE area at present being har vested was planted six months ago and covers about 80 acres on part of the old airstrip site Next year’s planting will probably extend to 200 acres, if the unseason able rains during the “dry’—which threaten to become a permanent feature of Moresby—do not elimi nate it as a Kenaf growing locality The 200 acres should absorb about 6,000 lb of the present seed crop for planting, and should yield in the vicinity of 50,000 lb, from which growers in the territory will be supplied.

Kenaf grown for fibre is cut after from 70 to 100 days’ growth, com pared with five months required for seeding. It grows best in full sunlight.

The seed pods are about 15 mm long and contain a few seeds, ol distorted segment shape, about five mm. across. The seed collected by the harvester has a small amount of chipped stalk mixed with it, but this is later cleaned in a separate operation. The pods may be spread out over a foot or more of the upper end of the stalk, and the refuse ejected by the harvester is mostly coarse wisps of fibre.

Minute spines abound on the pods and are blown into the surrounding air by the harvester. Then they wedge in between the operator and

is clothing, or stick to the body /herever there is sweat to hold hem.

“You get used to it,” said Mr. A. imson, who is supervising the work, Ithough his hands showed irri ition between the fingers from the oines. Mr. Himson was previously ngaged on a Kenaf project run by tie CSIRO in the Northern Terri fy, but says that the fibre grows etter in Papua. Some experts be eve it may do better still in the larkham or Ramu Valleys in New ruinea, further north.

If the Kenaf harvesting exped ient at Laloki is carried to a suc sssful conclusion, it could lead to le complete mechanisation of fibre rop growing and preparation.

MORESBY, July 3—owing to con nued wet weather, there now is a anger that a large part of this im ortant Kenaf crop cannot be har- Bsted. Operations have been held p for some time and the seed may e ruined.