1020 



GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



The wholesale price table on fats and oils as of January 1949, is as 

 follows: 



Item 



Jan. 21, 

 1949 



Butter, 92 score, Chicago 



Lard, tankcar lots, Chicago 



Cottonseed oil, crude, S. E. mills 



Coconut oil, crude. Pacific coast 2 



Soybean oil, crude, midwest mills 



Inedible tallow, prime, Chicago 



Linseed oil raw, tankcars, Minneapolis 

 Tung oil, drums. New York 



Cents 

 63.9 

 13.0 

 14.3 

 17.9 

 14.0 

 8.3 

 27.0 

 20.9 



1 Prices in 1945 were at the wartime ceilings. 



' Three cents added to allow for ta.x on first domestic processing. 



Compiled from Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, the National Provisioner, Chicago Journal of Commerce, 

 and reports of Production and Marketing Administration. 



A study of the first table reveals that the price of cottonseed rose 

 157 percent from the period 1937-41 as compared with the 1948 price; 

 peanuts from 3.58 cents per pound to 10.60 cents or approximately 

 200 percent; soybeans per bdshel $0.96 to $2.39 or approximately 

 160 percent; flaxseed from $1.63 per bushel to $5.75 per bushel or 

 252 percent. 



The price of tung nuts, per short ton, on the other hand, rose only 

 6K percent from $51.24 per ton to $54.70. 



Smaller increases in price were received by farmers on these products 

 in 1948 as compared with the 1942^6 average as follows: Cottonseed 

 24 percent, peanuts 37 percent, soybeans 18 percent, and flaxseed 

 90 percent. 



The price of tung nuts on the other hand dropped from $97.72 

 per ton in 1942-46 to $54.70, a decrease of 44 percent. 



It should also be noted that where cottonseed, peanuts, soybeans, 

 and flaxseed showed increases in price of 57, 31, 65, and 105 percent 

 in 1947 as compared with the 1942-46 average the price of tung nuts 

 decreased 34 percent. Tung nuts, in other words, are the only oil 

 seeds in this category showing a reduction in price to the farmers. 



The obvious inequality between tung and the other fats and oils is 

 even more strikingly demonstrated in a study of the second table on 

 fats and oils prices. 



The table reveals that with the exception of inedible tallow the 

 wholesale prices per pound of fats and oils shows varying increases in 

 price from the 1945 average to the January 21, 1949, quotation. The 

 price of butter is up 51 percent over 1945; cottonseed oil is up 12. 

 percent; soybean oil up 12 percent; coconut oil up 60 percent; linseed 

 oil up 90 percent; the price of tung, however, has declined 47 percent 

 or from 39 cents per pound to 20.9 cents, and is even lower at this 

 writing, April 28, 1949. 



The only other commodity in this table showing a decrease in price, 

 as cited above, is inedible tallow which, declined from 8.6 cents in 1945 

 to 8.3 cents, a condition attributed to faulty export regulations 

 clamped on certain inedible fats and oils which forced the accumulation 

 of large surpluses in this country thus materially dislocating the 

 market. The decline, it might be noted, is only three-tenths of a cent. 



That something is radically wrong with the price of tung nuts and 



