Evening star., 1935-08-18

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sand dollars will guarantee the sue
cess Of the enterprise. The result
is staggering to the imagination; 1t
means the utter banishment from our
tables of all cane and beet sugars
and the direct efforts Of thousands
and thousands of our farmers toward
the supply of our entire needs of
sugar"
Need for More Alcohol Seen.
DR. Ralph M. Hixon of the depart
ment of chemistry, Iowa State Col
lege, widely known for his many in.-
portant discoveries in the field Of agri-
cultural chemistry, made an exhaus-
tive study Of the Jerusalem artichoke.
He expressed the opinion that indus
trial alcohol offers a most encourag-
ing outlet for the artichoke. II be-
lieve." he said. that the extensive use
OF alcohol in motor fuel is bound TO
take place within the next five years.
About 35 gallons Of industrial al
cohol can be expected from one ton
of artichokes."
In the meantime, the industrial
chemists are probing deeper into the
secrets Of the artichoke tuber: the
chemical engineers are devising the
machinery and the sequences of
! processes to produce levulose and al
cohol commercially from the erstwhile
weed.
Tung Oil Produced in U. s.
Modern, production ways of
doing things are rapidly American
izing one Of the worlds aristocratic
industries-the making of tung oil.
| For more than so centuries. the
! culture of the tung tree and the
/ pressing OF the oil from its fruit has
been unique art of China. The
( records of that country show that for
/ more than 5000 years tung oil has
been a most important factor in
Chinese life.
In comparison with this antiquity.
the petroleum, automobile, rubber.
! electrical and transportation indus
tries of the United States appear to
be mere upStarts.
And now this blue -blooded aristo-
/ crat has sent some of its progeny to
America. for tung oil has become an
infant industry here holding high
promise that it quickly will develop
into a Southern crop producing mil
! lions of dollars worth of oil each year
in commercial groves and small farm
orchards.
Principal Market Here.
According to the United States De-
partment OF Commerce, more than
nlne-tenths Of the total quantity of
tung oil exported by China comes to
this country. For tung oil alone
American manufacturers Of paints,
varnishes, lacquers, enamels, limo
leum, oilcloth. electrical equipment,
insulating compounds, automobiles
and hundreds of other products are
sending sl5,000,0o0 every year to
China. In addition this country
spends over S60.000,000 annually for
linseed and linseed oil imported from
India and other sources. 1t Is con-
fidently asserted that American.
grown tung oil can displace imported
linseed oil.
The astonishing versatility Of tung
oil in American industry and the
high potentiality of the tung tree as
an annual income producer for South
ern farmers were disclosed at the joint
agriculture industry science confer
ence held a few weeks ago at Dear
born, Mich. now functioning as the
Farm Chemurgic Council. which seeks
to hitch the factory to the farm, to
their mutual profit. Tung oil. as an
agricultural producer of raw material
usable in industry, is on the councils
list with the soy bean, Jerusalem
artichoke. slash pine, hemp. fax and
other farm products available or to be
made available for manufacturing
purposes.
Brought to U. S. in 1904.
Back in 1904 the United States De-
partment of Agriculture brought in
some tung seed from China and dis
tributed it for planting and expert
mentation along a selected climatic
belt from Florida to California The
Government experiment station at
GAINESVILLE, Fla, took such active in
terest in the project that North-C
trail Florida is regarded as the tung
oil center Of the country. Here, un-,
der modern horticulture and mass
production methods, the tung tree Is
commercially cultivated. Modern oil
extraction machinery is used and the
nearly white, pure Florida tung oil
is said to be vastly superior to the
Chinese oil and also superior to lin
seed oil for most purposes.
How a Grower Sees 1t.
B. F. Williamson and Harry W.
Bennett Of GAINESVILLE. have been
pioneers in developing the new tung
oil industry Talking about tung trees
and oil, Mr.. Williamson said:
"Over $500, 100000 has gone out Of
the country in the last 10 years for
> inferior paint and varnish oils when
We can produce superior products in
their place at a profit. This prodUc-
ton in the United States would sup
port 80 to 40 thousand people. Dur
ing the four or five years necessary
to bring the trees into production,
cattle, sheep and chickens run in the
groves, producing meat and milk.
Adjacent to the groves and on the
same type of soil grow pine trees
that produce turpentine. We are sue
cessfully manufacturing tung oil into
paints and varnishes, using the tur-
pentine grown next door to the grove.
10000 Acres Of Trees.
I'VE have in this country a little
over 10000 acres of tung trees. The
United States uses 80 to 90 per cent
of the worlds production of tung oil.
If they put tung oil into paint and
make the quality that should be made,
it would only take three or four Of
the big concerns to consume all the
tung oil in sight.
$50 here is a crop that is not over
produced-it cannot be over produced
in many, many years. We have de-
veloped sufficient evidence to show it
can be produced in the United States
and at a profit. We are really
Just getting in production for this