All growers were required to be shareholders and included farmers from the Kensington , Charlottetown , Emerald , New London , Albany, Carleton Siding , Miscouche , Bedeque , Freetown and western areas of the Province. Mr. Salome assumed the position of manager. In 1965, Herman Mayne , of Emerald , Austin Pendergast , of Kensington and Loman MacLean of Arlington become directors. In 1968, Loman MacLean was replaced by Maynard MacArthur , also of Arlington and Austin Pendergast by Glenwood MacLeod of Park Corner . The first flax crop was planted in the Spring of 1964 with seed purchased by Mr. Salome through a contact in Holland. About eight farmers signed agreements and about 1000 acres of flax were grown. Through this same contact Mr. Salome arranged for the purchase of seeding, harvesting & processing equipment at a cost of $50,000. This was all second hand machinery and as it turned out later, much of it was not suited for its purpose and was extremely over-priced. The first problem was that the equipment required extensive refitting and replacement of electrical motors where were not compatible with the voltage available on P.E.I. The company purchased land and buildings in Freetown from Mr. Leonard Paynter , (code 38). The house was used as an office, and the large barns for a storage of flax straw and processing equipment. The out buildings were used for storage of the finished product. In 1965, the number of growers increased to 100 and the acreage to about 1500. In 1966, the acreage decreased to 800-900 acres due to the fact that no payments had been made for the first two years crops. Because fibre flax had to be inspected before shipping for export, the Plant Products Division of the Canada Department of Agriculture become involved at an early date. Other departments at Ottawa became interested in the tow, (the lowest grade of fibre) for paper making and the Provincial Government was showing more support. However it was "too little, too late". The Plant Products Division brought down an expert from , Victor Menne , who had many years of experience in Europe. However, he could not remain. Mr. Salome was replaced as Plant Manager in February 1966, and some time later Douglas Barry was hired. He, however, knew absolutely nothing about flax. Several carloads of fibre were shipped to Holland, and some seed and tow were sold in Canada , but by the time the local power and labor bills were paid there was nothing left for the farmers who grew the crop. A flax growing expert, Mr. Jules Cavelle , was brought in from Belgium, but because he was not allowed any control by Mr. Barry he soon returned to Europe. The Provincial Department of Agricutlure brought in Mr. James Dorie Sr. and his son, James H. Dorie , from Scotland to evaluate flax growing on P.E.I , and the set up at Flax Industries. The Dories were large flax brokers from Glasgow and were well versed in the requirements of the industry and the machinery available for processing. They assured us that P.E.I , farmers could produce a high quality flax but because of the lack of trained personnel and the improper equipment, changes would have to be made in the growing and processing of the crop. The correspondence in the files of Donald E. Stewart of the Plant Products Division makes very interesting reading and reveals what might have happened "if" the right things had been done at the right time. Definitely, good quality fibre flax can be grown on P.E.I. , with proper management and processing of the crop good grades could have been obtained. With the advent of more synthetics the fibre market has gone down considerably since 1970's and whether or not we could compete in the present market would be another question. Some farmers dared to be different - they lost financially but no doubt there were some gains as well. Information has been supplied by Fred Paynter , Herman Mayne and Donald Stewart ( Ex . Inspector) MUSHROOM PLANT In July, 1977, the Lady Slipper Mushroom Plant began growing mushrooms at their facility in Lower Freetown (code 51). The proprietors were Don Arsenault and June Pearson . The company borrowed $722,000 from Industrial Enterprises Inc. (now the P.E.I. Development Agency) to begin operation and erected a building in 1976. The plant was to produce mushrooms for the restaurant and produce market in America. 62