The age-herald., 1901-06-29
COTTON SEED OIL.
Is There a Combination of the Cotton
 Seed Gil Mills.

From New York Journal of Commerce.
 The talk Of a combine in cotton seed oil is still the absorbing topic of conversa- tion in that trade. But 1t Is still largely a mystery, and no two men have the same idea of what has been accom- plished or of what kind of a combine Is being attempted, if any at all. This much, however, Is fact: The Virginia and Carolina Chemical Company of Richmond, Va, a rich fertilizer company which uses cotton seed meal largely for its ammonia in manufacturing it's phos- phates, instead of blood, bought the At lantic Cotton oil Company of Sumter, s. C., about ten days ago, with it's four mills and one refinery, and has also bought the Interstate Company of Geor- gia, which Is a good-szed company, but not so large as the Atlantic. These are undisputed facts. It Is also undisputed that the same chemical company has been asking for options on the stock Of the Southern Cotton Oil Company at 6O, par $50. and Is believed to have secured a controlling interest, though 1t has not yet exercised its option. Part of the trade believe this move Is to secure it's own supplies of cotton seed meal by the chemical company and also to ind in- yestment for it's surplus money While others think it Is acting as agent of the American Linseed oil Company, which IS controlled by the Standard oil people, Tn order to secure cotton oil for a new pro cess called the Moulton process, Of max ing cotton seed oil into a substitute Tor linseed oil for paint, which the linseea company is said to have acquired. It IS also said to have built factory on Staten Island, (which, by the way, Is said to have been painted with this cot ton seed oil paint) for the manufacture of this kind of oil, and that 1t has ai- ready bought 5000 barrels of cotton seed oil in this market for that purpose, ana is about to begin it's manufacture on scale of importance enough to put 1t in the market.
 The trade think that if this be true the chemical company would take the meal product of the mills it has bought and the Iinseed oil company the oil they would produce from this new product. But tnls would not require the plants Of the Soutn- ern Company, which Is second to the American Company In size, and in which the Standard Oil people are believed to have an interest. if not controlling one. should the options, therefore, on the Southern be used there are those who be- lieve this move would foreshadow gem eral consolidation of the whole cotton seed oil industry, as the American could be easily taken over after the other com panies had been secured under this blind of the chemical company, which could effect such purchases much cheaper than any rival interest But this would in volve the buying up of half dozen more large refneries besides, if not also a large number of crushers all over the South which would be gigantic job.
 This is not generally believed to be the purpose of the late purchases, yet the trade admits it's possibility and await de- velopments with much interest and some anxiety What kind of combine it will be, therefore. Is the question everybody in the trade asks and no one answers. Whether the movement in the American Cotton oil stock has anything to do with these transactions Is also conundrum in the trade. This stock sold at 26 cents 351h cents