Value Of Tung Oil.

THE answer to the question of how much oil a tung-oil tree will produce and what may be expected in the way of income may now be given with approximate accuracy.

The average yield of tested trees over a ten year period as reported by the University of Florida Experiment Sta tion was 24.08 pounds of dry shelled nuts per tree. Nuts have been crushed, to find that they yield about 33 1/3 per cent. oil. On this basis, the average yield per tree for the ten years would be eight pounds plus of oil. The average price of oil over the ten-year period from 1922 to 1931, inclusive, was high 15.54 cents and low 14.02 cents. Each tree, therefore, produced approximately 1.20 dollars’ worth of oil in a year.

A four-year-old tree at the University Experimental Station grew forty pounds of nuts. From these nuts were taken eight pounds of oil, and at fifteen cents a pound the tree earned 1.20 dollars. An acre with sixty trees would yield 72 dollars. Each year it will increase the yield until the tree is fifteen years old.

After the trees are big enough to shade the ground they need very little cultivation. A very important factor in keeping down expense is the use of live stock in the groves. They do not harm the trees, but gather the grass and cover crop so that the nuts can be easily found. Where the weeds and grass grow high under the trees it is expensive to gather the crop and diffi cult to find the nuts. —J. F. Massey in “Country Gentleman.”

EDITORIAL NOTE: It should be noted that the Fordii variety of Tung Oil tree is grown in Florida, and it is very doubtful whether Fordii can be grown successfully in the Pacific Islands, although experiments are being made in many places. We believe that the Montana variety, although a less prolific yielder than the Fordii, will yet be found most suitable for the Pacific Islands cultivation. The Fordii is indigenous in the Yangtse Valley, China; while the Montana comes from much further south, in the Cochin China region.