1048 . GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



It will be noted from Mr. Colmer's and Mr. Gathings' bills that the period 

 1936-40 is used as the base period for the purpose of computing parity on tung 

 nuts. This period has been chosen because this was the base period used by the 

 Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the Department of Agriculture, for the 

 development of parity prices for various agricultural commodities. Using this 

 same base period, a comparable price for tung nuts was also developed by the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



To summarize briefly, we would assert that today our American tung growers, 

 faced with a low market price for tung oil relative to today's exceedingly high 

 production costs, are in urgent need of governmental encouragement or assistance 

 to tide them over the present critical period until production costs may be brought 

 nto line with tung-oil prices. We would submit that such assistance would 

 seem to be prudent and advisable by virtue of the fact that such assistance 

 would not only support and enhance the economic well-being of a large segment 

 of the population in the area in which tung is grown, but would also serve to 

 maintain a dependable source of supply of tung oil, a highly strategic war material, 

 for any future needs which our country may have for this material in the event 

 of war. 



We feel that encouragement of our American tung industry by Congress would 

 be distinctly in the national interest, both as to the employment of people who 

 would otherwise be reduced to a low standard of living, and in preserving a 

 strategic material particularly needed in time of national emergency and a material 

 which is also greatly needed and used by American industries throughout the 

 Nation. 



Tung: Old Crop With New Uses 

 (By Donald Jackson and J. C. Eiland) 



Tung oil — something of a mystery product since Marco Polo first carried 

 word of it from Kublai Khan's dynasty to Venice in the thirteenth century — is 

 not the. complete stranger you may think it is. It is a component of the oilcloth 

 on your pantry shelves and a waterproofer of the raincoat you wear on a wet 

 morning. 



Whatever the ancients may have thought about tung oil and its unusual 

 qualities, it is nothing more nor less than a first rate commercial oil whose im- 

 portance in our economy is determined by its chemical properties and our skill 

 in putting it to work. 



Tung has been called the world's fastest drying and most durable natural oil — 

 two designations that earmark if for many specific uses. Most widely it is 

 utilized as a drying agent in paints and varnishes, though its durability, special 

 insulation, and waterproofing qualities serve to greatly broaden its utility. 



Actually, its list of uses is as varied as it is long. Gaskets, brake linings, 

 printing and lithographing inks, calking materials, insulations for electrical 

 appliances, waterproofing preparations for munitions and shell cases, and acid- 

 resisting coatings for food containers all utilize tung in varying amounts. 



TUNG FIRST IMPORTED IN 1869 



Tung has been used for centuries by the Chinese as a multipurpose oil — as a 

 base for their famed ceramic lacquers, as a calking agent for waterproofing their 

 junks, and in China's interior, as a rather smoky illuminant. The first two uses 

 are the tip-off to our first and still most important commercial utilization, for 

 since the turn of the century tung oil has been imported from China as a significant 

 raw material for our paint and related drying industries. According to the 

 available records the first imports of tung to the United States were made in 

 1869, but it was not until after 1900 that tung shipments expanded into one of 

 China's most valuable exports. 



Even as the volume of China's exports grew, however, tung's versatile nature 

 earned it such an increased rate of consumption in the United States that the 

 supply was often inadequate. Moreover, as China's recurring internal conflicts 

 served to complicate trade activities, it was no surprise that new sources of tung 

 oil should be sought. 



Although China had constantly maintained a strict monopoly on tung produc- 

 tion, in 1906 a handful of kernels were brought to California where plant scientists 



