The highest price paid for American oils in May of last year was $13.80 per 220 pounds, and the lowest $11.48 in November; English oils ruled from 19 to 38 cents lower. The average prices paid for American oil of late years have thus fluctuated:

The striking progress of American edible oils in this market, as contrasted with former sales of industrial oils, appears in the following table of cotton-seed-oil imports at Marseilles:

Stated in another manner, the total value of the American importation of 76,040 barrels of 1902 was $175,650, while the total. value of the importation of 287,739 barrels in 1898 was but $404,453. To counterbalance the short arrivals of American industrial oils, Marseilles received, during 1902, excessive supplies of soap-making as well as edible-oil-making materials. The figures follow:

Practically all the increase last year in oil-making material came under the head of arachide and sesame seed, and the bulk of the arachides went into the soap trade, the unshelled nuts being 10,000 tons short; and as American cotton-seed oil was 122,000 barrels short, it is quite clear that, large as the olive crop was last year, the great difficulty was in the consuming market, which exercised its privilege of not buying at all. It is expected that the same thing will occur this year, and perhaps more strikingly, as the olive crop-last year excessive-is this year very short and bad in quality. Prospects point to an increase in the arrivals of sesame seed, and arachides will also come in heavily.

The high price of olive-oil foots is explained as the natural result of a fuller knowledge of a valuable product. The production of this oil by chemical reaction has been carried on for not more than fifteen years, and the material sold at a low range for several years because it could be had in annually increasing quantities and was considered a by-product. Now, the chemical reaction is employed everywhere, and the manufacture of foots can only increase materially with the olive crop. More important than this is the actively contested belief, put forward by some as an ascertained fact, that 100 pounds of foots will manufacture upward of 5 pounds more of soap than a like quantity of pressed oil. It is claimed that this method of manufacturing the foots gives the manufacturer of soap a fatty material without other ingredient, which the pressed oil does not. The supposed intrinsic value of the foots being in excess of that of oil, soap makers have naturally worked the prices up to high levels. Whether this idea of intrinsic value be illusory or not, the vital fact is that at this date foots are selling in Marseilles at $11.96 per 220 pounds, about $1.93 less than a corresponding grade of olive oil, and one buyer has gone so far as to intimate to me that the time might come when olive growers would find it advantageous to handle their entire crop by the chemical process, covering, in the lower cost of manufacture, the loss of the high grades of edible oil.

ROBERT P. SKINNER,

MARSEILLES, January 13, 1903.

Consul-General.

PRODUCTION OF COLORED COCOONS.

Messrs. Conte and Levrat have recently been making interesting experiments with silkworms, which have resulted, it is said, in the production of cocoons of varied shades.

The ordinary cocoon is white, yellow, or sometimes green. The question to be solved is why different colors should be produced by similar species, and whether it is the direct result of the food taken

by the worm. If this coloring matter comes from the leaves fed to the worms, Messrs. Conte and Levrat considered that it should be easy to color their food artificially and thus secure different shades of cocoons, although several naturalists have attempted to prove the impossibility of coloring matter passing from the intestines of the worm into the silk-producing glands.

The worms which served for their experiments were placed on branches of privet washed over with red. They ate the leaves without prejudice, and when the larvæ began to spin the cocoon the silk was a bright red.

The

When fed on leaves colored blue, the silkworms produced a slightly bluish silk. The species that produces ordinarily a yellow cocoon, when fed upon leaves colored red, brings forth a deep orange. original yellow, it is said, is due to the pigment in the leaves of the mulberry. W. P. ATWELL,

ROUBAIX, January 13, 1903.

Consul.

SUGAR PRODUCTION IN SPAIN.

A comparative statement of the production of beets and beet sugar in Spain during the seasons 1901-2 and 1902-3 (from the commencement of the crushings up to December 31) has been made public by the department of customs at Madrid:

The production this season exceeds that of last year-in beets, by 79,290 tons; in sugar, by 12,528 tons. Under the total of “sugar warehoused" are included the quantities obtained from beets left over from previous seasons.

At the end of December, 1902, there were 48 beet-sugar factories in Spain, and I am told that there are several others under course of construction. The 48 mentioned are distributed as follows: Provinces of Alava, Almeria, Barcelona, Burgos, Cadiz, Cordova, Corunna, Lerida, Palencia, Pontevedra, Santander, Soria, and Valladolid, 1 each; Granada, 13; Leon, Malaga, and Navarra, 2 each; Oveido, 5; Madrid, 3; Saragossa, S.

MADRID, January 12, 1903.

HARRY H. HALLATT,
Acting Vice-Consul.

AMERICAN FLOUR AND LARD IN MALTA.

FLOUR.

The demand for American flour and lard is increasing here, es pecially for the former. A year ago, I proved by statistics that there was a growing and permanent demand for flour, and predicted that 1902 would show a still further increase. That prediction has been fully borne out. Without doubt, this demand is due in a great measure to the fact that Malta now has direct communication with the United States. With the regular and frequent sailings in force, this year will show a still greater increase in Malta's imports of American goods. The following table of statistics for the years 1897-1902 tells the story, and one has but to consult it to see not only what we are doing, but also the increase or decrease of our rivals:

From the above table, it will be seen that the United States supplied, during the year 1902, 65, 270 bags, or 28,223 bags more than in the previous year. These figures, however, represent only the quantity arriving by steamers of the direct line. Much of the flour imported from Liverpool, London, and other ports (to which credit of origin is given) was really of American production, inasmuch as those ports were either used as places of transshipment or the flour was taken from stocks of American flour located there and shipped here on order. If it were possible to obtain the true amounts, I feel confident that the figures for the United States would be vastly larger. Our closest competitor, as will be seen, is England. The figures given for her contribution are decreasing. The total demand for the year 1902 was a shade smaller than for the previous year.

I can not too forcibly call the attention of our merchants to the advisability of sending goods here by the direct line. Vessels coming direct from the United States, as a rule, bring only American goods, while those bringing our goods from ports of transshipment are apt to bring an overwhelming percentage of products of other countries. This is a matter to be considered in the interest of increasing the demand for general lines of our goods, outside of the questions of delay, loss in rehandling, and freight charges. Merchants here understand our methods and requirements as regards terms of payment.

LARD.

In the matter of lard, I would say that Malta uses it extensively. No statistics are at present available to enable me to give the sources. During the year 1902, 16,117 buckets and 829 barrels were landed; 5,706 buckets came by the direct line from New York and were assuredly American. Of the 10,411 buckets remaining, it is safe to say that a very large proportion was American, coming from English. ports by transshipment. Two-thirds of the vessels bringing lard to Malta were from English ports. From an investigation recently made in this line, I am convinced that the figures for next year will show a decided increase in the sale of lard direct from the United States. Our lard enjoys a prominence and popularity hardly reached by similar goods from other countries.

VALLETTA, January 12, 1903.

JOHN H. GROUT,

Consul.

AMERICAN AUTOMOBILES IN MALTA.

I have recently received applications from parties here for information with regard to the advantages of the American automobile. There are already several in use, and correspondence is now being carried on between probable purchasers and American makers. One gentleman recently went to England and, after looking at the various makes of machines there, ordered one of American origin, which is giving good satisfaction. This machine is of the steam variety, being the only one of its kind here. The others are operated by gasoline. One firm desires to secure large vans for delivery of goods. No fault is found with gasoline machines except that it is somewhat difficult at times to procure gasoline, on account of local laws. It is imported from New York and other places, but the supply is apt to be limited.

American manufacturers of automobiles should bear in mind that Malta does not possess, as a rule, long, level stretches of road. There are many steep hills-some of them having a grade of 1 in 9.