PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION OF FATS AND OILS. 7 
used for oil production and how much goes into other channels, 
This is especially true of coconuts and peanuts. 
Nevertheless, some rather interesting broad generalizations may 
be based on the foregoing tables. 
1. The United States normally produces about six times as much 
fat as is exported, even if the quantity of fats and oils combined in 
other foods, such as condensed milk, meats, and grains, and in tech- 
nical products are not considered. Although butter is not included 
in Table 3, as it is reported by the Department of Commerce under 
''Butter and Butter Substitutes," the total of these products ex- 
ported in 1916 was only 26,561,302 pounds, and therefore does not 
affect this rough comparison. 
2. While in the prewar years we exported over three times as 
much as we imported, in 1917 our imports were larger than our 
exports. 
3. The production of the animal fats, exclusive of butter fat, equal 
to but 70 per cent of the vegetable oil output of the United States 
in 1912, rose in 1917 to nearly 80 per cent. Including butter, in 
1912 the quantity of animal fats was approximately twice as great 
as that of vegetable oils, while in 1917 the production of the two 
classes of fats and oils was nearly the same. 
4. Among the vegetable oils, that made from cotton seed stands 
in a class by itself with respect to its production in this country. 
In 1912 it constituted 73 per cent, and in 1917, when the cotton crop 
was unusually short, 61 per cent of the total production. Next in 
importance in this class of oils is linseed, which in this country is 
used entirely for technical purposes. Before the war, in 1912, and 
in 1917, after this country had begun to feel the effects of the war 
•on its foreign commerce, linseed oil constituted about 19 per cent 
of the total vegetable oil production. It will be noticed that the 
quantities of coconut oil, corn oil, peanut oil, and soy bean oil have 
increased very rapidly during the last five years. The amount of 
coconut oil made in 1917 was six times as much as that manufac- 
tured in 1912; the amount of corn oil was somewhat less than twice 
as great; and the peanut oil made in 1917 was over 100 times as 
much as that produced in 1912. Probably little or no soy bean oil 
was made in the United States in 1912, but in 1917 our oil mills 
turned out more than 42,000,000 pounds, and we imported almost 
265,000,000 pounds, as against the 25,000,000 pounds imported in 
1912. 
5. Very little animal fat has been imported. Even when the fish 
oils and butter substitutes are included, the total annual importation 
m prewar years was only about 28,000,000 pounds, or a little less 
than 9 per cent of the amount consumed. After the war began the 
