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Show 1 40,000 Trees Planted in U. S. Tung-Oil Project WASHINGTON. More than 40,000 tung trees, the beginning of what department of agriculture scientists hope will be a successful tung-oil industry in the United States, were planted last spring in test orchards throughout the Gulf coast region. Sharp reductions in imports of tung oil because of the war in China and the generally unsettled conditions condi-tions in the Far East have stimulated stimu-lated interest-in growing tung trees in this country. Tung oil is an indispensable in-dispensable ingredient of quick-drying paints and varnishes. For three years the department's bureau of plant industry specialists have been scouting tung orchards in the South for superior trees. Combing Comb-ing these orchards, they selected some 500 trees which were hardy, high yielding and early maturing. Nuts from these trees yield a high percentage of good quality oil. About 80 of the best trees from this selected lot of 500 were chosen for propagation. Thousands of young trees were produced from them. Besides breeding tung trees better bet-ter adapted to the climate of this country which will yield larger quantities quan-tities of oil, department of agriculture agricul-ture scientists are studying various vari-ous problems of growing trees. Research men warn prospective tung growers, however, that the industry in-dustry is still an expensive and speculative enterprise if attempted on a large scale. |