TUNG OIL

Tung nuts are grown on a tree indigenous to China. The name of the tree is derived from the heart-shape of its leaves, as the Chinese word for heart is "tung". The tung nut tree reaches a height of about 25-feet and will produce approximately 20-25 pounds of nuts per season. The tung nuts are processed to produce a poisonous oil, sometimes called Chinese wood oil, which is sold as an industrial-use vegetable oil. (The Mississippi Press, ?, p. 3-A)

The refined tung nut oil was used extensively in the manufacture of paints, varnishes, enamels, pulp board, and as a waterproofing agent. Technological advances in the paint industry and damage to orchards severely reduced its demand and production until very recent times, when a revival for tung oil was ordained by new environmental regulations. Once again, tung oil is used in the paint and printing industry displacing petroleum distillate compounds which are deemed environmental hazards. (The Mississippi Press, November 24, 1996, p. 4-A)

In 1905, tung nut trees were imported from China and first cultivated in a cemetery at Talahassee, Florida. By 1936, more than half of the 50,000-acres of domestic tung nut trees were growing in south Mississippi. The well-drained, moist, slightly acidic soil of cut-over timberlands in the Gulf coastal plain of South Mississppi made this an ideal region for tung nut tree cultivation. (The Jackson County Times, August 22, 1936) Certain sections of Stone and Harrison Counties were sites of pioneer tung nut cultivation.

TIMELINE

1906

The first Tung Oil tree in Mississippi was planted by Aristede Hopkins in 1906 on Hopkins Boulevard.(The Daily Herald, July 28, 1933, p. 1) 

1948

First Mississippi produced tung oil began to flow in late January at the American Tung Oil Mill at the Landon Community situated four miles north of Gulfport and near US Highway No. 49.  The plant processed nuts from groves in George, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Hancock, Harrison, Perry, and Stone Counties in Mississippi and Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama.(The Daily Herald, January 29, 1948, p. 1 and June 2, 1949, Sec. II, p. 1)

REFERENCES:

Mississippi Gulf Coast Yesterday & Today (1699-1939), Federal Writers Project in Mississippi Works Progress Administration, (Gulfport Printing Company: Gulfport-1939), pp. 30-31.

The Daily Herald, “Plan Tung Oil tree expansion”, January 28, 1931, p. 1.

The Daily Herald, “Tung Oil trees”, May 1, 1931, p. 2.

The Daily Herald, “Show interest in Tung trees”, January 23, 1933, p. 3.

The Daily Herald, "Dr. [F. Walter Boyer of Akron, Ohio] Boyer tells Rotary [Club] of Tung Oil", August 29, 1934, p. 2

The Daily Herald, “Plan development of Tung tree groves”, January 13, 1936, p. 2.

The Daily Herald, “Tung meeting set for Coast”, December 7, 1937, p. 1.   

The Daily Herald, “6,000 Tung trees reported in [Harrison] County”, September 17, 1947, p. 5.

The Daily Herald, “New plant produces first Tung Oil in Harrison County”, January 29, 1948, p. 1.

The Daily Herald, “Colmer introduces tung nut measure", February 13, 1948, p. 1.

The Daily Herald, “Tung Group scans 8-point plan”, May 27, 1949, p. 1.

The Daily Herald, “Landon Tung Mill serves 29,576 acres of Tung trees-Harrison alone has 2420 acres”, June 2, 1949, Sec. II, p. 1.

The Daily Herald, “Tung Oil import bill introduced by Rep. Colmer", June 12, 1951.   

The Daily Herald, “Tung support price $52.13”, October 31, 1957.   

The Jackson County Times, "Tung Oil to be studied at M'Neil Station", August 22, 1936, p. 1.

The Sun Herald, “Tung Oil pays anew”, November 1, 1998, p. H1.