14 BULLETIN 769. T\ S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
attempts have been made to decrease the "refilling loss." that is. 
the amount of oil absorbed in the soap stock, or "foots/" but much 
yet remains to be done. Recently methods which make it possible 
to press the soap stock or put it through a centrifugal, thus effecting 
the recovery of a part of the oil absorbed by it. have been suggested. 
The bleaching of cottonseed oil with fuller's earth causes a loss, 
and probably does not materially improve the quality of the oil. If 
the trade did not demand a white cooking compound, it would be 
possible to dispense with this operation. As it appears necessary, 
however, that bleached oil be supplied, the practice of extracting the 
spent fuller's earth with gasoline, to recover as much as possible of 
the oil. might be in more general use. 
MANUFACTURE OF "COMPOUNDS." 
As already stated, a large part of American cottonseed oil is used 
in the manufacture of lard substitutes. This fact is substantiated 
by the data in Table 8. compiled from reports made to the Fats and 
Oils Division of the Food A dm inistration, which, while not abso- 
lutely accurate, are approximately correct. In 1917 nearly 1.174.000.- 
000 pounds of lard substitute were produced, and in its manufacture 
about 1.070.000,000 pounds of refined cottonseed oil were used. 
This refined oil. figured back to the crude, allowing an average re- 
fining loss of S per cent, represents over 1.163,000.000 pounds, or 
practically 87 per cent of our total production of crude cottonseed 
oil. The 13.800.000 pounds of cottonseed oil imported is such a 
small proportion — less than 1 per cent of what is used in the United 
States — that in these comparisons it need not be considered. Dur- 
ing the three years immediately preceding the war. our average 
annual exportation of lard substitutes was nearly 6S. 000. 000 pounds, 
but since then the volume of the exports has fallen somewhat, the 
figures for 1917 being only about 50,300.000 pounds. This decrease 
is proportionately about the same as that which has occurred in our 
exports of lard, and probably is due to the same causes — the difficul- 
ties in trans-Atlantic shipping, and the lessened demand in foreign 
countries for such products, attendant upon their increased prices. 
Lard substitutes are variously known as "Lard Compound." 
''Vegetable Cooking Compound." Compound Lard." or. more gen- 
erally in the trade, simply as "Compound." Some of these are mix- 
tures of lard or lard stearin with vegetable oils, while, instead of lard, 
others contain about 12 per cent of oleostearin. Recently a new 
class of substitutes containing no animal fats whatsoever has become 
very popular. These preparations are made either by the partial 
hydrogenation of a vegetable oil. or by mixing with the untreated 
oil a sufficient proportion of almost completely hydrogenated fat to 
produce a substance having the consistency of lard p. 10 . 
