GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1013 



varnish, linoleum, and oilcloth manufacturers cannot be doubted. Access to a 

 source of supply unaffected, at least by political conditions and crude methods of 

 production, from which an unadulterated material may be obtained and of wnich 

 forecasts may be made with sufficient accuracy to warrant expansion or plans for 

 increased production on the part of American consumers, would be of inestimable 

 value. 



Klein concludes his report to Mr. Hoover with the following words : 



As an innovation it is still an experiment, but as an experiment it is one which 

 is well worth a real effort, and if it will result in freedom for a group of American 

 manufacturers from a foreign source of supph^ of a raw material it is highly 

 desirable. 



In Concannon's much more exhaustive treatise, published 7 years 

 later, as part of the Department of Commerce's Trade Promotion 

 Series, the chief of the Department's Chemical Division goes into 

 every phase of tung, from planting of the seed to crushing and market- 

 ing of the oil. The report, profusely illustrated and documented, 

 opens with a foreword by Frederick M. Feiker, Director of the Bureau 

 of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, which states in part: 



Establishment of a tung-oil industry in the United States will undoubtedly 

 be a distinct boon to Florida, Mississippi and the other Gulf States. The planting 

 phase of this industry represents a splendid contribution to the diversification of 

 Southern agriculture, providing an economic use for certain waste and uncul- 

 tivated land and an added channel of activity for labor in that region. In addi- 

 tion, the erection and operation of mills for the commercial expression of the oil 

 may directly amplify industrial activity in the Gulf States, and may tend to 

 encourage the movement of paint and varnish and other consuming industries 

 to southern plant locations. 



This monograph is therefore dedicated to the sound development of an activity 

 which serves agriculture as well as industry and whose influence affects directly 

 conditions in the South and indirectly business interests throughout the entire 

 country. 



In the concluding page of this report Concannon notes progress in 

 the establishment of a domestic tung oil industry in the United States 

 pointing out that a "considerable extension of tung tree acreage" 

 had been noted during the previous year (1931), in Florida, and 

 Alississippi, and hails the first shipment of a full tankcar of American- 

 produced tung oil in the spring of 1932 as a — 



very promising demonstration of the excellent prospect of developing commercial 

 production of the oil in the United States during the coming j-ears. 



Concannon concludes his hundred-page report in the following 

 glowing statement: 



The value of permanently founding a tung-oil industry in the United States 

 cannot be measured only in terms of the saving of millions of dollars now expended 

 in China for supplies of this commodity. The significance to southern agriculture 

 of rapidly expanding commercial acreage devoted to a crop for which there is a 

 large existing market in the United States cannot be overlooked. As an agri- 

 cultural activity, tung-tree plantings promise to benefit all classes of people in 

 the South — bankers, property owners, foresters, farmers, and laborers. Plant- 

 ings represent a splendid contribution to the diversification of agriculture in that 

 region and provide a profitable use for large tracts of waste and uncultivated land. 

 The milling phase of this industry will directly add to industrial activity in the 

 Gulf States and will indirectly stimulate interest in the location of paint and 

 varnish and other consuming industries near supplies of one of their most perti- 

 nent raw materials. 



It can readily be seen that both the Department of Agriculture and 

 the Department of Commerce have been vitally interested for more 

 than 40 years in developiug a domestic tung oil industry. These 

 Government departments, however, were not the only interests 



