The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-02-16
4 PATRIOTIC CROP.
HOW CASTOR OIL pRODIrCEn m
THE SOUTH MAY SAVE THE
NATION.
Manufacturers Record.

1t is conceded by military authori-
ties that the war America and her AL
lies are waging to save civilization is
to be won in the air. To this end.
the United States is preparing for the
the construction of an air fleet of 22.-
900 aeroplanes. in which are to be in
stalled the new Liberty motor design
ed by the best internal combustion en-
gineers in America. who pooled their
knowledge and experience with the
aid furnished from the results achiev-
ed by the Allies engineers in order
10 assure type of gas engine that
would "urpass anything that could be
accomplished through individual ef-
fort. Since the development of this
motor experts, after exhaustive tests
found that the Liberty motor like
others Of its type which run at exces-
siVely high speed hour after hour, re-
quires special oil for it's fabrication
without an oil that will thoroughly
lubricate every part of the delicately
adjusted mechanism, this powerful
engine would soon pound itself to
pieces. The oil must be one that will.
not carbonize, it must form a thin
fiim over every bearing surface, II
must flow under all conditions of at
mospheric pressure and work equal
~ as we'll under excessive heat at
high speeds as under the freezing
temperature of high attitudes.
The only oil that has so far been
discovered to answer every purpose is
nothing more nor less than ordinary
castor oil, the kind we all became ia.
miliar with in our childhood. It's
use as lubricant is not a new thing.
for before it came into service as q
lubricant for airplane motors it hal
been used on engines of racing auto
mobiles for several years.
Upon the decision of the experts
that castor oil was essential for the
operation Of the Liberty motor, it
became evident that the production
and stock Of all the castor oil in the
world would not begin to answer our
needs for the large number of air
planes we are preparing to construct,
much less to supply oil for those OF
our Allies. So it was up to the United
States war department to get busy
and develop this agricultural produc;
on larger scale
To produce castor-oi beans, from,
which the oil is pressed. requires a
mild climate and long growing sea-
son. Castor beans have been raised
IN small quantities in different parts
or the South in former years, more
for show purposes than anything else.
though 80 years ago a castor oil m.
was operated in Texas using locally
grown beans. Oil was produced to
the amount of several hundred thou
sand gallons. but with the development
OF the mineral oil lubricants the
planting of castor beans dropped to
practically nothing. In order to get
the seed for this years crop we had
to import them from India. Because
OF climatic conditions, the government
has had to turn to the South to fur
nish it's castcr-oil supply and the war
department has called upon South
ern States to plant 100000 acres in
castor beans, which will develop an
entirely new industry to this section.
But the problem confronting the
war department was how to get SO
large an acreage under cultivation by
carly spring and get farmers to
plant crop that they knew nothing
about. AS the government could not
deal direct with individual growers,
who could plant but an acre or so
each, 1T was decided that the whole
10000 acres required by the war de-
partment this summer should be ap-
for castor-bean production and then
for the department to make a con-
tract for several thousand acres each
with responsible persons or concerns
in the several States. These con-
| tractors are to subcontract with in
dividual growers. This method OF
creating this entirely new agricultural
development was adopted also with
the idea Of preventing spectators
| from driving the price of the beans
beyond all reason and to make sure
of it's supply the needs of the govern
ment were contracted for. The gov
ernment has allowed to the contractor
$3.50 a bushel for the beans, and is