TUNG OIL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 130, 5 June 1933, Page 12

TUNG OIL

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

The Empire Marketing Board recently estimated that 400,000 acres planted with Tung oil trees would satisfy the requirements of the Empire, and that the land for'this could be found within the Empire. This is regarded as an underestimate, for in America, where the cultivation ia being taken up seriously, the estimated needs for the United States alone is put at 300,000 acres. The Manchester "Commercial" Bays: "American experience is both interesting and encouraging. While cultivation has been carried on for some years in Florida and Louisiana, the greatest activity appears to be in Mississippi, where, on the Gulf Coast, one plantation alone exceeds 10,000 acres, and is being extended. A lumber company in Louisiana has been planting its barren, unproductive land with Aleurites, securing from a 65-acre ground eight tons of fruit in the fourth year and fifty tons in the fifth. Here, and in the Mississippi, it is said that the' yield per acre is double that of the sugar cane, while the cost of upkeep and reaping is less than one-tenth the cost of cane cultivation. Both the Aleurites and the Eloeococca flourish on waste land and rocky soil, provided there is a sufficient rainfall. The trees, Which grow to 30 to 40 feet high, need very little care, although they respond to a certain amount of cultivation by bigger yields. The process of oil extraction is fairly simple, not calling" for expensive machinery, the essentials being presses and good filters. The nuts when ripe are split open, the seeds extracted, roasted, ground, and pressed. If the fleshy substance of the nuts is allowed to ferment (as commonly happens in China and Japan) the seeds may rot, be attacked by boring insects, or otherwise damaged, all of which affect both the yield • and quality of the oil."