80 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



awakened to the fact that this oil was ecpecially 

 desirable, not only in candies, but in various 

 other confections. 



Recently a concern at Portland, Ore., gave an 

 order for machinery, which it intends to instal 

 in its plant at that place for the purpose of re- 

 fining the oil and placing it on the market for 

 edible uses. Practically all of the oil that has 

 been used for this purpose heretofore has come 

 from the other side. There are only two mills 

 in this country where the crude oil is manufac- 

 tured, and the great bulk of this has gone to the 

 soapmakers, but the company mentioned came 

 to the conclusion that if there was a demand for 

 the oil for use by other trades than the soap 

 trade there should be a domestic factory where it 

 could be secured. Hence the steps which have 

 been taken to establish the new plant. 



The supplies of copra, which a short time ago 

 were considered more than ample for every need 

 of the trade, are now proving to be two small, 

 according to those who are engaged in the busi- 

 ness of making oil. If the American factories 

 where the oil is crushed from the copra could 

 secure all the raw material that they could use 

 they could not only keep their plants in active 

 operation all the year around, but they probably 

 would have to increase their facilities, 



£. C. Travis, Western manager of the American 

 Linseed Company, which owns one of the coco- 

 nut oil mills in San Francisco, said today that 

 the demand for the oil seemed to be on the in- 

 crease out of all proportion to the supply, and 

 that the sale of oil now formed a considerable 

 part of the far Western business. 



li I never saw an industry pick up so rapidly,' 1 

 said Mr. Travis, in an interview with a repre- 

 sentative of the Be porta . " It is simply amazing 

 how this country has turned to coconut oil. 

 Only a few years ago the soapmakers were the 

 only ones who used this oil, and then only for 

 their white soaps. We always had plenty of oil on 

 hand, and we did not make nearly the amount 

 that we turn out now. Then there suddenly 

 sprang up a notion that this oil could be used 

 as an edible product. The Europeans wero the 

 first to discover the nutritive value of coconut 

 oil, and they have been using it for a number of 

 years. Marseilles used to supply the great bulk 

 of the oil that was used in this country, and had 

 no trouble in furnishing all that was required. 

 But when Europe began using the oil as an edible 

 the demand there picked up so that the French 

 market was no longer able to keep the pace 

 with it. Our mill in San Francisco has been in 

 operation for a number of years, and we are 

 doing more business every year. The enormous 

 increase in the demand soon exhausted the sup- 

 plies that were availahle, and we had to search 

 the South Sea Islands for more places where 

 the copra could be bought. With the American 

 occupation of the Philippines there was more 

 attention paid to the cultivation of the coconut 

 trees, and the number was increased, but even 

 now we feel the shortage. We bought last March 

 the entire output of the American Samoan 

 Islands, about 2,000,000 pounds; but this will not 

 be ready to oome forward for several months yet. 

 We are getting copra now and then by chartered 

 boats, but this is an expensive way. Since the 



Government refused to reduce the speed and 

 tonnage of boats in the Pacific Island service, so 

 that the owners of the boats could secure the 

 subsidy, the Oceanic Steamship Company has 

 had to go out of business, and their three big 

 boats are now tied up at docks on the Pacific. 

 This mv ;kes it necessary for us to charter boats, 

 and this is an uncertain proposition at best. If 

 the steamship service was better we could secure 

 much more copra than we are now getting, and 

 we might be able to get into the territory in this 

 country, east of the Missouri River, which is now 

 closed to us because of the higher freight rates 

 from the Pacific coast than from the Atlantic. 

 Chicago, therefore, gets no domestic oil but must 

 depend on the foreign supply. The freight rate 

 to Kansas City from the West is 55c, and the same 

 to Chicago, while the Eastern rate to Chicago is 

 only 19c! We recently sold a car of our oil to a 

 Winnipeg buyer, the rate to that point being 90c. 

 Coconut oil is high. It is quoted f.o.b. San Fran- 

 cisco, at 9c for the Ceylon, and 9|c for the Cochin. 

 The latter, having a smaller percentage of free 

 fatty acid, does not saponify as quickly in solution 

 as the Ceylon; hence it is more greatly desired 

 for use in the manufacture of white soaps, the 

 amount of free oil in the soaps being therefore 

 reduced to a minimum. I believe there is a great 

 future for this oil, both for the soapmakers and 

 the manufacturers who use it in confections, 

 and the establishment of a factory for refining 

 the oil out on the Pacific coast should give an 

 impetus to the American trade." — New York 

 Oil Reporter, May 30. 



COCONUT PRODUCTS IN GERMANY. 



1MPOKTS OF COPRA AND COCONUT YARN AND FIBRE 

 INTO THE EMPIRE. 



In answer to an inquiry Consul-General Robert 

 P Skinner, of Hamburg, furnishes the following 

 information concerning the vegetable-oil indus- 

 try in Germany, especially that relating to coco- 

 nut products : — The rapid growth of the vege- 

 table-oil industry in Germany is not confined to 

 the crushing of copra alone, but extends to 

 oleaginous seeds generally. A cottonseed oil 

 crushing mill, the largest in the world, has re- 

 cently been built in Harburg, which is across 

 the river from Hamburg, by F Thorls Vereiriigte 

 Harburger Oelfabriken, A.G. ; a large plant at 

 Lubeck has been reorganised with American 

 capital, and under present American manage- 

 ment ; and other manifestations of activity are 

 noted in the business. While not an oil-con- 

 suming country, as that phase is understood in 

 the south of Europe, the Germans require large 

 quantities of compounds, and are also making 

 use of quantities of highly refined coconut butter, 

 which is sold under various proprietary names. 

 The daily production of coconut butter in 

 Germany is estimated at 100 tons. The imports 

 of copra and coconut yarn and fibre (coir) into 

 Germany in 1908 were as follows:— Copra, 83,669 

 tons, imported from Dutch E;iM India, British 

 India, Ceylon and Samoa ; coconut yarn, twisted. 

 6,721 tons, from British India (6,322 tons) and 

 Ceylon ; coconut fibre, 1,527 tons, from Ceylon 

 (1,010 tons) and British India.— New York Oil 

 Reporter, May 2, 



