PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION OF FATS AND OILS. 29 
say nothing of the ordinary domestic requirements, has been a serious 
problem. At one time the castor bean was an important crop in 
certain sections of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. In 
recent years, however, we have been able to import from India all 
the beans we required more cheaply than we could raise them, and 
very few have been grown on a commercial scale by American 
growers, until 1918. The imports for the year ending June 30, 
1916, amounting to 1,071,963 bushels, in the next fiscal year dropped 
to 766,857 bushels, in spite of the increase in price. Our normal 
requirements are about 1,000,000 bushels. The domestic produc- 
tion of castor oil from 1912 to 1917, inclusive, is given in Table 1, 
and, as we neither exported nor imported appreciable quantities, 
these figures may be considered as our prewar consumption. 
Early in 1917, foreseeing the approaching shortage in the domestic 
supply of castor oil, the Federal Government purchased all the 
available stocks on hand, and also placed an embargo on the exporta- 
tion of any except the lowest grades of this oil, which could not be 
used for lubricating purposes. The Signal Corps made contracts 
with southern farmers, guaranteeing to buy at a fixed price all the 
beans that could be grown on about 100,000 acres. The seeds for this 
planting were secured from India, by agreement with England which 
had placed an embargo on the Indian crop. It was also arranged 
that any excess of beans above the amount needed by the Army and 
Navy should be crushed to supply our technical industries requiring 
this oil. 
METHODS OF OBTAINING CASTOR OIL AND ITS USES. 
So far as is known all but one of the few American mills which 
crush castor beans use the hydraulic process similar to that of the 
cottonseed oil mill. A large portion of the beans raised in 1918 will 
be pressed in expellers, which recent experiments have shown to be 
well suited for this work. Abroad large quantities of castor oil are 
extracted from the ground beans by the use of volatile solvents, 
but this oil is inferior to the expressed oil. Although it has been 
believed that only No. 1 cold-pressed oil is satisfactory for high- 
speed motors, some hope seems to exist that a second or even third 
grade can be refined to form a good lubricant. Besides its medicinal 
and lubricating uses, castor oil is used in making certain varieties 
of soap, in the preparation of sticky fly papers, imitation leathers, 
and for many other commercial purposes. The press cake from 
castor beans contains a poisonous principle, which makes it dangerous 
as a cattle feed, although it has value as a fertilizer. 
MISCELLANEOUS VEGETABLE FATS AND OILS. 
In addition to the principal vegetable oils already discussed, a 
number of oils less important commercially are produced in or 
imported into the United States, in comparatively small quantities. 
