Tung Old Oil for New Needs 



FORTY YEARS AGO the beautiful upper valley of the 

 Yangtze River was not exactly a tourist's paradise. In 

 this mountainous back country Chinese bandit bands 

 practiced their ancient profession right into the crooked 

 streets of Hankow. Here they fought pitched battles 

 for control of this rich commercial center. A white man 

 was as great a rarity as a Mandarin in full peacock 

 regalia in a Broadway night club and just as fair game. 

 Alive, he was worth some sort of ransom; dead, he 

 would tell no tales. 



Into this rugged region the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture sent one of its most resourceful 

 plant explorers, David Fairchild, a son-in-law of the 

 inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. 

 Among the fruits of this daring plant hunt Dr. Fair- 

 child brought out two hundred pounds of the nuts of 

 the tung tree. He believed they would give us a new 

 crop as useful as Spanish peanuts. He did not know 

 this importation would bring with it as many problems 

 as the immigrant English sparrow. 



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