and specially in the Middle West, In
general trade and agriculture sug-
ests Preat activity In the vegetable
011 markets, and doubtless also In the
mineral oil business. In saying this
we have particularly In mind the po
sition of the linseed oil trade and the
white lead industry which, of course,
mean practically the American Lin
seed Oil Co. and the National Lead
Co. This spring with the beginning
of deferred maintenance of railroads,
factories, public buildings, , farm
buildings, homes, business building
interiors, highway bridges and in
dozens of other important lines there
will be, the writer believes, more
paint used than In any other warm
weather period in the history of the
country. Concerns like the two men
tioned bid fair to come Into a period
when their fortunately large inventor
ies will vanish like a March snow,
and their business ought to show profit
percentage to compare favorably wth
times of greatest iporsperity, as their
inventories are understood to have
been carried in their last balance
sheets at figures very much below the
current market prices of their pro
ducts, the demand for which is Just
beginning to assume substantial pro
portions. It is not only in the domes
tic markets that the American Lin
seed Co. is likely to profit, for it is
probably due in considerable measure
to the efforts of its president who is
now abroad that the foreign inquiry
is reviving for oil and oil cake, even
in f -co of the present difficult position
of exchange. It was at the annual
meeting of American Linseed last No
vember that the president of the
company stated, to the stockholders
, that ,n B)x months or a mtle more
; tnere woula be a larjfe cut ln current
debit accounts through the marketing
of goods and materials carried, in In
ventory. For some days there has been nota
ble strength in the flaxseed market in
this country, and at the same time
the situation has been more or less
complicated by the difficulties attend
ing seed experts from the Argentine.
