The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-02-25
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H,ba CENrREyELLE.T TENN, Feb. 18th. ls70. ),
Nh. EDITOR :-Thiaking that per-
haps some Of the many readers of
your valuable paper might feel an in
tcrest, or would like to experiment Id
raising peanuts, will ask the space
to state briefly the mode adopted by
our best farmers in their cultivation
and preparation for markell sos /
The soil best adapted to the culture
of the white peanut, is light soil
such as would make five or six hum
dred pounds of seed cotton, or five or
six barrels of corn per acre. The
ground should be plowed as for corn,
an6 well pulverized; then layed off
in rows aoout thirty or thirty-six in
chcs apart, and checked. Two nuts
to the check is sufficient, but three
would be better to secure a good
stand. If the peas should be planted
in drills, they should be put about
fifteen inches apart; if nearer, they
should be thinned when up to that
distance, ard only two should remain
i'm check. The hoe or foot should
be used in covering, and should never
be covered deeper than two inches
one win do. -oi''
Commence planting from the first
to the fifteenth of May. Two bushels
Of good peanuts will plant an acre. :
She'll and pick out all spotted or bad
looking peas. The most important
item about the crop is to have good
seed. If picked off the vines before
being thoroughly dried, or if frosted
after digging, or heated in the bulk,
(Which they are apt to do) they will
not come up, Good seed will come
up i'm fifteen or twenty days. When
the peas first come up, plough with a
turning-plow next to the peas, just
deep enough to cover the young grass,
scrapc the hills with hoes, and pull
up weeds and grass not removed by
the hoe. Let them remain until the
grass and weeds again begin to show,
then run shovel or bull-tongue pillow
as near the peas as possible not to
cover them up, and follow again with
hoes In a dry season the peas should
be worked three or fou: times, but il
the season is wet five times. At the
last working little earth should be
drawn up to the vines, taking care
not touch the vines at all, as the peas
by thi; time have commenced form
ing. Z i n f = 4 } o. I 4
Commence digging about the tenth
of October. Run round the peas with
a bull-tonguef plow, one furrow OH
each side, followed by hand with a
grubbing-hoe. Strike one lick with
the hoe, then, pull up the vine with
the hands, shake it and lay it upon
the ground with the pea roots up to
the sun. About two days after dry
ing, the vines should be put up in
small shocks to a pole about seven feet
high, and we'll capped with fodder or
hay. The top of the shoch should be
small enough to cover with one vine.
In three weeks after Smoking they will
be dry enough 10 pick. If they can
not be picked Immediately, they
should either be put in larger stacks
and covered, or removed to barn or
clubhouse where they can be kept all
winter. After picking, the peas
should be we'll cleaned of trash and
stems, and all faulty or black or moul-
dy ones thrown out; and advise all
pea-laisers to fan the dust from their
peas by running them through a COM
mon wheat-fan. 1t makes them look
bri g liter, and consequently more sale
able. Frequently they bring from fif-
ty cents to one dollar per bushel more
than peas put up badly.
The average crop of peanuts in this
county is about fift; bushels to the
acre, but good land well managed
will rarely ever fail to bring from
seventy-five to one hundred bushels
per acre. -s. b. -ar-.-, ,
The Virginia peanut is the same
white pea that VIC raise. The only
reason that they command a higher
price i'm the markets, is that they are
better cleaned, and usually put up in
more merchantable manner than
ours. Good peas we'll cleaned and
well put up, will command a fair
price. e-f
The red peanut is now popular
pea with our farmers. They are a
more certain crop, and they mature
two weeks earlier than the white, and
arc easier cultivated, as they have no
vines, growing straight up like an
indigo stalk. They require less la
Dor. and are easier picked of. They
shoald be drilled like cotton, in rows
three feet apart, and about seven in
ches i'm the drill. and should be plant
ed about the same time of the white
pea, and covered shallow, say from
one to two inches deep. They can be
dug by the fifteenth or twentieth of
September, and may be shocked the
same evening after digging, and put
up the same way as the white pea.--
AS the red peanuts are all in bunch,
they can be laid close to the shock
pole, and there will be no danger of
being heated by the vine as with the
white pea.
know of as many rs ten acres be-
ing cultivated by one hand, and the
crop yielded six hundred bushels,
which was sold early i'm the market,
and brought the Owner 81 200. The
red pea can he brought into market
fifteen days earlier than the white,
when the market is good. This pea
well managed will yield OIL good land,
such as will produce one thousand
pounds of seed cotton to the acre,
from fifty to eighty bushels peas per
acre. Poor land does not suit them
at all.
Some of our best farmers say they
had rather make pea crop and sell
them at one dollar per bushcl at home,
than to raise cotton at six cents per
pound i'm the seed. 4 great advan-
tage in pea raising is: The vines make
as good hay for stock as anything else,
and the vines of the red pea is greatly
relished by all kinds of stock.
If the farmers OF your and adjOin-
ing counties should wish TO try this
crop, they can be supplied with seed
at Centreville-particularly the red
pea. 5. Ill. WILLIAMS.