106 ^^^ Philippine Journal of Science i»i6 



The price of each commodity has generally risen. The mean 

 difference in price has likewise shown a gradual increase. This 

 will result in a greater demand for the less favorably known 

 cottonseed oil. But here the supply is not unlimited. To cite 

 but une instance: Egyptian cotton is suffering severely from 

 the attacks of the pink bollworm that is not only destroying 

 tht" lint cotton, but is infesting the seed that reaches maturity 

 and goes to the mill as well. 



The awakened demand for edible vegetable oils has been ac- 

 companied by the withdrawal from the soap industry of such oils 

 as can be made edible by refining, deodorizing, or hydrogenating. 

 Thus many oils formerly used largely or exclusively for the 

 manufacture of .soap have now been shifted to this new industry 

 by means of improved treatment in handling, and the soap 

 manufacturers are either unable to obtain them at all or only at 

 greatly inflated prices. To illustrate: Marseilles, which is the 

 most important soap-manufacturing city in Europe, requires 

 annually something like 120,000 tons of fat for this industr\'. 

 Heretofore 40 per cent of this has been coconut oil. But in recent 

 years, out of the total annual production of 85,000 tons of copra 

 oil in Marseilles, about 50,000 tons are sold direct as an edible 

 fat, and 10,000 tons are exported to the Netherlands and else- 

 where for mixing with cottonseed oil, peanut oil, and other soft 

 fats to make oleomargarin ; this leaves but 25,000 tons for the 

 soap trade there, when the normal supply from this source has 

 been 48,000 tons. 



Linseed oil the last two years has helped somewhat to alleviate 

 this condition. It is easily hardened by hydrogenation, thus mak- 

 ing it available for soap stock. And because of the record crop 

 of 1913, when there were 2,700,000 metric tons, or half a million 

 more than the year before, it has been sold at an extremely low 

 price. The cost in Liverpool in April, 1914, was 5.4 cents per 

 pound, or 2 cents cheaper than average tallow. However, the 

 supply of linseed varies from year to year, and the soap industry 

 dares not be entirely dependent on it for its supply of soap 

 stock; consequently any new oil-bearing .seeds are eagerly wel- 

 comed by importers and manufacturers in the hope that by their 

 exploitation the present strain may be relieved and the price ad- 

 justed to the level held before the existing conditions arose. 



A preliminary paper on Philippine oil-bearing seeds was pub- 

 lished by Richmond and Rosario in 1907. In this article they 

 discussed the nuts known locally as lumbang bato {Aleurites 



'This Journal, Sec. A (1907), 2, 439. 



