Florida's Tung

To Washington, D. C. go the lobbyists of old and powerful industries wanting Government protection. And to Washington go the enthusiastic sponsors of new, hopeful industries wanting Government protection and encouragement. In Washington last week was such a sponsor. He was Harry Wiggin Bennett, 66, president of the two-month-old American Tung Growers Association (32 members) whose groves of tung trees represent 90%, of the 25,000 acres so far planted in the U. S.

Foods, not tung oil. were Mr. Bennett's first interest. Fie was manager of Woolson Spice Co. when the Havemeyer interests bought it in 1899. He went into the brokerage business, then in 1907 organized F. H. Bennett Biscuit Co. At the time he had not heard of a tung tree, nor of the rich oil its walnut-like nuts yield. But in 1905 seeds for the first tung tree in the U. S. had been brought from Hankow and planted in the Department of Agriculture's experimental farm at Chico, Calif. In 1907 seeds were also planted in Florida.

In 1927, F. H. Bennett Biscuit Co. was changed to Wheatsworth Inc.; two years ago it was sold to National Biscuit Co. for $5,300,000 in N. B. stock. A prime advertising stunt of Mr. Bennett's was the Wheatsworth "Gingerbread Castle" at Hamburg, N. J., designed by Joseph Urban after the opera Hansel & Gretel, visited by 500,000 people yearly.

While Mr. Bennett was making his "bone-shaped" dog food and W'heatsworth's whole-wheat crackers, the tung trees in Florida grew tall, bore fruit. A group of important paint & varnish makers, in whose business the oil is a main raw material and whose purchases of it from China are a large part of the $15,000,000 worth imported by the U. S., grew interested. In 1924 they formed American Tung Oil Corp. to start a 225-acre grove. Sherwin-Williams, Valspar, du Pont, Devoe & Raynolds, Pratt & Lambert and Benjamin Moore & Co. were among the experimenters. Then Benjamin Moore started a 1,900-acre grove of its own, set up an oil-extraction mill in Gainesville, 77 mi. southwest of Jacksonville.

Mr. Bennett heard of these developments while spending his winters in Florida (he summers at Walpole, N. H., where he has 20 riding horses). In 1929 he was in China, saw tung trees, decided to enter the business himself. He now has 2,000 acres planted near Gainesville.

Tung trees produce some nuts in their third year but usually it is the fourth to sixth before the crop is satisfactory and the tenth before they are in full bearing. Taken care of, the life of a tree should be about 50 years. The flowering season is in April. In November the first frosts knock the nuts to the ground where they are allowed to dry for about a month before they are milled. After the oil is extracted the cake can be used for insecticide and fertilizer.

Tung oil (also called "wood oil") is used, in addition to paints and varnishes, for insulation and for waterproofing. The U. S. oil is selling at about 10-c- per Ib. against 6-c- for imported oil. The imported oil is of inferior quality, generally adulterated with soy bean oil. Two years ago the price of imported oil was 14-15-c-. There are only 3,500 acres in the U. S. in production now. When the 25,000 acres now planted are in full bearing they should yield 50,000,000 Ib. against normal imports of twice that much.

China has used tung oil for centuries in her lacquer, to finish paper, to calk ships. The glossy appearance of Chinese junks is given by tung oil, applied raw. China consumes 40% of its tung oil production. Hankow is the biggest tung oil port and the Hankow quotations are read by paint men throughout the world. Its industry boomed in the 1920's parallel with the U. S. building boom. The producing area for the Hankow supply is up the Yangtze River beyond the famed gorges in Szechwan Province next to Tibet. The big city in the area is Wanhsien. Opium and rice are the district's two other products. The nuts are gathered by coolie labor and the oil extracted in crude wooden presses made of hollowed logs. It is carried to Hankow in paper containers holding 30-gal. hooped with bamboo. It is purified in Hankow, barged to Shanghai and shipped in tank steamers. The big U. S. port of entry is Seattle.

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