gallons, or 60,000 pounds, is considered a carload unless otherwise specified. For all practical purposes, a gallon of peanut oil can be considered as weighing 71⁄2 pounds. Occasionally small lots of crude peanut oil are shipped in iron-bound barrels or drums holding about 400 pounds net.

YIELDS OF PEANUT OIL

The quantity of peanut oil obtained from a ton of crushing stock depends upon the variety, the quantity of trash in the lot, the moisture content, and, primarily, upon whether it is straight farmers' goods or so-called "mill stock" or "oil stock." In 1922 and 1923 the bulk of the peanut crushing in the Southeast, which turns out

FIG. 36.-Hydraulic presses used for crushing oil from peanuts

most of the crude peanut oil made in the United States, was from mill stock, or No. 3 peanuts. This includes shelled peanuts picked out by the operators at the belts in the shelling plants as being below grade, broken pieces of nuts, and undersized kernels which passed through the screens during the shelling operations. Crushers figure that No. 3 Spanish peanuts should turn out about 700 pounds of prime crude peanut oil and 1,200 pounds of peanut cake or meal, allowing 100 pounds of manufacturing loss per ton of mill stock, chiefly in the form of moisture. In commercial practice, Spanish and Runner mill stock are usually not kept separate, but are crushed together.

According to southern crushers, a ton of farmers' stock Spanish peanuts yields, if shelled before crushing, about 575-600 pounds of prime crude oil and about 770 to 800 pounds of cake of about 46 per cent protein content. If crushed straight, with shells, a ton of

farmers' stock Spanish will crush out about 560 pounds of prime crude oil and 1,300 pounds of cake of about 30 per cent protein content. About 525 to 560 pounds of crude oil and about 1,300 pounds of cake of 28 per cent protein content can be obtained from a ton of Georgia or Alabama Runners. No. 3 Virginias will yield about 560 pounds of oil and 1,340 pounds of peanut cake to the ton, allowing 100 pounds of manufacturing loss.

"Oil stock," when composed chiefly of peanut stems and shriveled shelled Virginia peanuts, may yield only 50 pounds of oil to the ton. On the other hand, when consisting of slightly damaged shelled Spanish, it has yielded as high as 860 pounds of crude oil to the ton.

The refining loss of crude peanut oil will range from 4 to 9 per cent, depending upon the quality of the peanuts crushed. Prime crude oil is usually sold on the basis of 5 per cent refining loss, and for each 1 per cent of loss above 5, 1 per cent of the contract price is customarily deducted.

VIRGIN OIL

The crushing of oil from peanuts is an industry of long standing around Bordeaux and Marseille, France, and in certain other sections of Europe. There it is a major business, and not a by-product of the shelling industry, as in this country during recent years.

Peanuts coming from Senegal and other countries in West Africa, and known as "Rufisque," from the chief port of shipment, arrive in the shell and are chiefly crushed at Marseille. Nearly al' of the oil obtained from Rufisque nuts can be made edible. The shells and skins are removed before pressing, and the first crushing is done without heat. The resultant oil, called "virgin oil," has a characteristic nutty flavor, and can be used for salad or cooking purposes without refining.28 Virgin peanut oil is more extensively used in France than is olive oil. After the first cold pressing, the cakes are reground and heated and again pressed, sometimes the operation being repeated three times with profit. The first crushing after cold pressing produces a low-grade edible oil; succeeding pressings furnish inedible oil, used for industrial purposes.

Shelled peanuts from India, known as "ordinary Coromandels," from the Coromandel coast, where many are grown, are often damp when shipped, because the hulls are soaked to facilitate shelling, and frequently arrive in a rancid condition.29 About half of the oil crushed from Coromandel nuts is used for soap-making and other industrial purposes and the remainder is refined and made edible.

REFINING

Hot-pressed peanut oil does not require refining when the product is satisfactory in a crude state, as for oil in miners' lamps and for soap stock. For most purposes, however, the deep coloring and the flavoring matter in the crude oil must be removed before the product can be used. In refining, the warm oil is treated with a solution of sodium hydroxide, which neutralizes the free fatty acids and precipitates the undesirable coloring matter. The alkali combines with the free acids and part of the oil to form a soap stock called "foots," which settles to the bottom of the refining kettle.

» Thompson, H. C., and H. S. Bailey. Peanut oil. In U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bul. 751, p. 5. 1920 (Revised).

Jones, C. L., and W. Frost. The vegetable oil industry of France. In U. S. Dept. Com. Bur. Foreign and Dom. Com., Trade Inform. Bul. 322, p. 6. 1925.

Attempts were made by several American firms a few years ago to place cold-pressed or virgin peanut oil on the market in tins and bottles, but it is not produced commercially in the United States at present. The lack of permanent success for these undertakings does not necessarily indicate that cold-pressed (virgin) oil can not be successfully marketed. Some people prefer virgin peanut oil to olive oil, and peanut oil is considered the more easily digested of the two.

BLEACHING

Bleaching is accomplished by mixing the hot refined oil with a small quantity of fuller's earth which takes up a large part of the remaining color and is then filtered out. The refining and bleaching gives an undesirable odor; so the oil is next subjected to a deodorizing process, in which superheated steam is blown through the oil, which is heated in a vacuum kettle. The odors are thus carried away. The resulting product is a bland, tasteless oil.

USE IN OLEOMARGARINE AND SHORTENING

The chief use of peanut oil at present is in the manufacture of oleomargarine. Formerly millions of pounds of peanut oil, chiefly imported stock, were employed in the manufacture of shortening or lard substitutes (sometimes called lard compounds) to lighten the darker-colored cottonseed oil. Since the passage of the tariff act, effective September 21, 1922, however, the use of peanut oil in shortening has greatly decreased.

Oleomargarine.-Oleomargarine is composed of various mixtures of some of the following: Cottonseed oil, peanut oil, neutral lard, oleo oil, coconut oil, and in the better grades, butterfat or cream, churned in milk, and with salt added.

Nut Margarine.-"Nut margarine" is a white product, in which only true nut oils can form the base. Although not a nut botanically, the peanut has been grouped with the coconut and palm nut for this purpose. In commercial practice, comparatively few palm nuts are used in making nut margarine, leaving the field to the coconut and peanut.

To comply with the law, nut margarines must be labeled "oleomargarine," although they contain no oleo. As colored margarines are subjected to an Internal Revenue tax of 10 cents per pound, most manufacturers place their product on the market in the white form, which is taxed only one-fourth cent per pound.30

Use in shortening.-Shortening, or lard compound, is made from a mixture of cottonseed oil, peanut oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, and corn oil, or from any one or any combination of these oils, blended with enough oleostearin from beef fat, neutral lard, or artificial stearin (hardened vegetable oils) to give the final product sufficient firmness when passed over a refrigerated "lard roll." Hardened vegetable oils, including peanut oil, are white, tastless, and odorless.

OTHER USES OF PEANUT OIL

The better grades of refined peanut oil are used to a considerable extent in salad-oil blends. Large quantities have been employed in

30 Mallory, J. A., Compiled statutes of the United States, 1913, vol. 3, p. 279!, sec. 6220. St. Paul. 1914.

making table dressings. The preparation of canned sardines has sometimes taken a considerable quantity of refined oil. As peanut oil does not absorb odors and will stand a higher temperature than olive oil, the sardines may be cooked in peanut oil, which is drained. off and the fish then packed in olive oil.

The manufacture of toilet soaps utilizes some of the lower grades of peanut oil, and the "foots" or residue from the refining processes are used in soaps and lubricating oils. To a slight extent peanut oil has been used for miners' lamps, for candles, and as a substitute for olive oil in textile work.

IMPORTED PEANUT OIL

In the fiscal year 1923-24 nearly 14,000,000 pounds of peanut oil were brought into this country from China, including Kwantung (leased territory) and Hongkong, and more than 1,000,000 pounds came in from France, besides smaller quantities from Belgium and other countries. Peanut oil shipped from European countries is produced from peanuts grown in India, Africa, and China, and is usually refined before shipment to the United States; the oil brought directly from China is usually in the crude-state (fig. 37). Imported

FIG. 37.-Imported peanut oil being loaded into tank cars from storage tanks on Pacific coast peanut oil is used by manufacturers of oleomargarine and other products, the same as the domestic article. Large quantities of peanut oil from China are purchased by the Chinese along the Pacific coast and around New York City for cooking and soap-making. Small lots of peanut oil from China are usually shipped in 5-gallon cans, two cans packed in a wooden case; large shipments come in bulk. Wooden barrels holding 380 to 400 pounds of oil, and casks holding around 800 pounds, are the containers for peanut oil coming from Europe.

Peanut cake is the flat, solid residue from the crushing of peanuts into oil in the hydraulic press. These slabs of cake (fig. 38) range from 30 to 33 inches long and are 14 inches wide and about inch thick. The term "cake" is also applied to the large "flakes resulting from running peanuts through the expeller press. For exporting, the product is left in cake form, but for sale in this country it is generally run through a breaker and then ground into meal of about the consistency of corn meal.

Peanut meal is now sold chiefly to manufacturers of stock feeds. When the price was cheaper it was used to a considerable extent as a fertilizer.

Both as a stock feed and as a fertilizer, peanut meal is considered to have more value than cottonseed meal; but farmers in the South have not generally recognized this fact. One of the factors limiting the growth of the peanut-oil industry in the United States a few years ago was the difficulty experienced by mills in disposing of their peanut cake and meal. Frequently during the early years of the peanut-oil industry, an increased demand for these products on the part of the Southern farmer would have reduced the supplies in the hands of the mills and raised the price the plants were willing to pay the grower for his peanuts.

The past two or three years have witnessed a greatly increased interest in peanut meal on the part of manufacturers of stock feeds in this country. As the stocks of domestic meal were gradually cut down by the small amount of crushing being done, it became necessary to get goods from abroad to supply the demand, and in 1924 over 4,000,000 pounds of peanut meal were brought to America from China, France, and England. Further imports may be expected whenever the demand exceeds domestic production.

For feeding purposes peanut meal is usually sold on the basis of 45 or 46 per cent protein content, although some manufacturers sell on the basis of 41 or 43 per cent protein. A meal containing 48 to 51 per cent protein can be obtained by grinding pressed No. 1 Spanish peanut kernels alone; but, commercially, enough hulls are left with the kernels to reduce the protein content of the meal to 45 or 46 per cent and sometimes to a smaller proportion. Meal made from No. 3 Virginias will not average over 41 per cent protein content.

Peanut meal can be fed to cattle in small quantities after milking without fear of giving the milk any peculiar flavor. As hog feed, peanut meal is superior to whole peanuts, because it does not cause soft pork. The addition of peanut meal to poultry feed stimulates egg-laying and aids in bringing chickens rapidly to marketable size. As peanut meal is highly concentrated, it should be mixed with other