288 
Modem  Paint  Vehicles. 
Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
May,  1919. 
in  the  middle  of  the  winter  of  "  nineteen  hundred-and-freeze-to- 
death,"  as  it  was  called,  both  coal  and  food  went  to  war. 
To  all  of  us  who  were  connected  with  the  paint  and  varnish 
trades,  one  of  the  most  serious  of  these  shortages  was  that  of  lin- 
seed oil. 
We  were  so  accustomed  to  having  sufficient  linseed  oil  for  our 
requirements,  that  the  shortage  in  ships  and  the  consequent  govern- 
ment embargo  on  the  importation  of  flaxseed  from  the  Argentine 
Republic,  brought  us  up  quite  suddenly  with  a  cold  chill  at  our 
closeness  to  a  very  serious  shortage  in  our  linseed  oil  supply. 
The  annual  production  of  American  flax  has  been  insufficient  and 
decreasing  for  the  last  decade  and  very  noticeably  so  during  the 
last  two  or  three  years.  We  had  been  getting  into  the  habit  of  de- 
pending more  and  more  on  the  Argentine  and  of  late  years  on 
Canada,  to  help  us  make  good  our  demand  and  the  requirements  of 
consumers  of  paint. 
The  normal  annual  consumption  of  flaxseed  in  this  country  is 
between  25,000,000  and  30,000,000  bushels;  while  our  annual 
production  for  some  years  past  has  been  well  under  20,000,000 
bushels,  so  you  see  we  are  far  from  self-supporting.  For  the  first 
part  of  1919  the  government  has  lifted  the  embargo  on  Argentine 
flax  and  authorized  the  importation  of  some  3,000,000  bushels. 
This,  of  course,  will  help  some,  but  the  problem  will  never  be  solved, 
at  least  in  peace  times,  by  trying  to  satisfy  the  industry  with  a  per- 
centage of  its  absolute  needs.  A  "  drop  in  the  bucket "  is  still  a 
"  drop  in  the  bucket,"  even  if  the  drop  be  extra  large  and  the 
bucket  only  a  thimble. 
In  normal  times  there  are  just  three  means  of  overcoming  the 
shortage;  increase  flax  production;  import  enough  seed  to  make  up 
the  shortage ;  or  use  other  oils  to  eke  out. 
The  first  method  of  solution  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Flax  De- 
velopment Committee  and  the  Educational  Bureau  of  the  Paint 
Manufacturers'  Association.  The  work  of  this  committee,  started  in 
1907,  when  conditions  were  very  acute  during  that  year  -because  of 
the  failure  of  the  crop,  cannot  be  too  highly  praised.  To  quote  from 
the  circular  of  the  Bureau :  "  No  more  effective  work  has  ever  been 
accomplished  (not  even  by  the  German  Government)  in  behalf  of 
any  industry  than  this  work  for  the  paint  industry  of  the  United 
States.    The  committee  has  wisely  contented  itself  with  selecting 
