THE PRODUCTION OF CORK OIL. 19 



of management and office organization would, almost certainly make 

 the operation unprofitable. 



Assuming that the foregoing estimate of approximately 1 cent is 

 the cost to produce 1 pound of oil in the average hominy plant (dry 

 process), it is possible to arrive at the cost for similar operations in 

 starch or glucose plants (wet process). As previously stated, the 

 vet-process germs yield approximately three times as much oil as 

 the dry-process germs. The cost to produce a pound of oil in a 

 starch plant would be, therefore, about a third of a cent. Some 

 operators in starch plants were of the opinion that the cost would 

 approximate half a cent a pound. 



Table III gives a comparison, of the revenue that may be obtained 

 by disposing of the germ material for mixing with feed and by 

 expelling the oil and returning the oil cake to the feed. 



Table III. — Comparison of the revenue obtainable from the germs from 1 bushel of corn 

 when disposed of respectively as feed and v:hen v^sed for oil expelling in either starch or 

 hominy mills. 



Items. 



Wet 



Dry 



process 



process 



(starch 



(hominy 



mills; . 



mills j. 



3.47 



4.17 



8.40 



10.42 



1.25 



.5 



18.75 



7.5 



2.22 



3.67 



5. 55 



9.17 



24. 30 



16.67 



c.63 



d.5 



23.67 



16.17 



15.27 



0. lO 



Germs obtained from 1 bushel of corn pounds. . 



Revenue from germs sold as feed, at 2.5 cents a pound cents. . 



Oil obtainable from germs pounds a . . 



Revenue from oil, at 15 cents a pound cents.. 



Oil cake obtainable pounds & . . 



Revenue from oilcake, at 2.5 cents a pound cents.. 



Total revenue from expelling operation (cake and oil; do. . 



Deduct cost of expelling do. . 



Net revenue for expelling do. . 



Balance in favor of expelling as against disposal of germs for feed stock do. . 



a Since the percentage of oil obtainable by expelling the germs varies greatlv, onlv the average is here 

 used. 



- 6 The weight of oil cake obtainable is here calculated, simply as the difference between the weight of the 

 germs used and that of the oil removed. For example, 100 pounds of dry-process germs are considered 

 as yielding 12 pounds of oil and 88 pounds of oil cake. Although not absolutely accurate, it is considered 

 sufficiently so for the purpose here intended. However, if by actual fat determination the germs are 

 found to contain 18 per cent of oiland the cake 6 per cent, the following formula should be used to determine 

 the exact weights of oil and oil cake obtained, thus: [6 (100— a) -h1 00] +a= 18 pounds (total oil present in 100 

 pounds of germs j , in which a represents the actual number of pounds of oil which will be obtained. Upon 

 solving this equation it is found that 12.766 pounds of oil are obtained, and 87.234 pounds of oil cake con- 

 taining 6 per cent of fat. 



c At one-half cent per pound. 



<i At 1 cent per pound." 



The figures in Table III are intended to be only approximations, 

 since several factors have not been considered which might increase 

 slightly the cost of producing the oil. The fact that the germ mate- 

 rial for expelling must be made more dry than that for feed purposes 

 will add slightly to the cost. The material would also probably be 

 reduced or ground to a greater extent than if intended for feed. 

 These operations are not expensive, however, and since the actual 

 cost is difficult to estimate they have been omitted from the calcula- 

 tions. The efficiency with which the degermination and expelling 



