54 
Castor  Bean  Losses. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<•     January,  19 19. 
CASTOR  BEAN  LOSSES,  $5,000,000;  GOVERNMENT 
AID  ASKED.1 
A  carload  of  hulled  castor  beans,  the  first  to  be  shipped  from  the 
east  coast,  was  sent  to  the  government  castor  oil  mill  at  Gainesville 
last  week  by  Helm  &  Walker,  whose  hulling  plant  at  West  Palm 
Beach  has  been  in  operation  for  the  last  ten  days.  The  carload  of 
beans  shipped  last  week  contained  about  800  bushels,  and  at  the 
present  government  price  of  $4.50  a  bushel,  had  a  value  of  $3,600. 
Castor  beans  are  being  received  at  the  local  hulling  plant  from  all 
points  along  the  coast  south  of  Titusville.  The  big  hulling  machine 
which  cleans  the  beans  and  prepares  them  for  crushing  has  an  out- 
put of  about  100  bushels  a  day. 
It  has  been  an  open  secret  for  some  time  that  the  big  castor  bean 
crop  planted  last  spring  at  the  request  of  the  Aircraft  Production 
Bureau  is  largely  a  failure,  not  only  in  Florida,  but  throughout  the 
South.  There  were  about  106,000  acres  of  castor  beans  planted 
under  government  contracts.  Of  this  acreage,  about  50,000  acres 
were  planted  in  Florida,  where  it  was  supposed  the  beans  would  do 
exceptionally  well  because  of  the  long  growing  season  and  semi- 
tropical  climate.  The  beans  were  to  be  relied  upon  by  the  govern- 
ment to  furnish  a  supply  of  castor  oil  for  the  lubrication  of  the  air- 
plane motors. 
The  estimates  of  government  officers  in  charge  of  the  crop  were 
that  the  acreage  planted  would  produce  something  more  than  2,- 
000,000  bushels  of  castor  beans  before  January  1  next.  Contractors 
and  growers  were  induced  to  engage  in  the  castor  bean  business 
upon  the  representation  of  officers  of  the  war  department  and  agri- 
cultural department  that  an  average  yield  of  from  20  to  40  bushels 
per  acre  might  be  expected. 
Instead  of  the  2,000,000  bushels  of  beans  anticipated  from  the 
big  war-time  crop,  it  is  said  that  the  total  yield  this  year  from  the 
entire  106,000  acres  throughout  the  United  States  will  not  exceed 
500,000  bushels,  and  will  probably  be  less.  Along  the  east  coast  a 
few  of  the  best  fields  have  produced  as  high  as  from  three  to  five 
bushels  per  acre,  but  the  average  field  has  been  one  bushel  per  acre 
and  the  crop  on  several  thousand  acres  has  been  so  poor  that  it  has 
not  been  worth  gathering. 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Florida  Grower,  December  7,  1918. 
