TUNG-OLD OIL FOR NEW NEEDS 



Five years ago, the Department of Agriculture 

 launched a double-barreled campaign for tung nuts: 

 the first, purely agricultural; second, industrial, experi- 

 ments on quality, properties, uses, etc. The project is 

 under the direction of Dr. George F. Potter, a capital 

 "nutologist," who makes his headquarters at Bogalusa, 

 Louisiana. Three additional laboratories have been 

 established: at Fairhope, Alabama; Cairo, Georgia; and 

 Gainesville, Florida. Cooperative work is carried on 

 with the Mississippi and Florida Experiment Stations, 

 as well as with growers located in all areas of the tung 

 belt. The scientific work at Gainesville is carried on in 

 a modest little laboratory under the hill on the Uni- 

 versity of Florida's beautiful campus. Here a New 

 Hampshire born, French-Canadian bred horticulturist, 

 Dr. Felix Lagasse, and his staff have taken new steps 

 toward greater crops, studies on breeding, selection, 

 budding, fertilizing, cover-cropping systems, and cul- 

 tural management. 



In 1938, a microscopic hunt was carried on through- 

 out the tung belt to find the most promising tung trees. 

 Some of these trees appear to be significantly better 

 than average tung seedlings. If this continues it will 

 be of much economic value to the industry. Seeds from 

 these trees were planted in 1939 and the seedlings went 

 into the orchard in 1940. The first fruit crop was gar- 

 nered in 1942, and the trees have been thoroughly 

 tested for their capabilities to date. 



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