The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-11-21
Oil from Peanuts.

The Agricultural Department report
for September states that it has long
been known that the general value of
the ground-nut (ArdchiS h2y2Ooge0), or
peanut, as it is Familiarity called, is in
the oil which it contains. Analyses
made in this department have demon
strated that the nut, under favorable
circumstances of cultivation, will Weld
at least Is per cent of oil; and it has
been found that for alimentary, mechan-
ical, and illuminating purposes, the oil
is scarcely inferior to that of the
almond, the olive, or the linseed. The
amount of oil varies according to lati-
tude. The nut is grown in almost all
the warm climates of the world, and es-
peclally IN Algeria, where it is indigen-
GUS, and where the plant appears to
thrive more vigorously than elsewhere,
and to afford much more oil. While in
Virginia, for instance, the average yield
of oil is Is per cent, the Algerian
growth is said to afford Is to 81 per
cent. It has been shown by experience
in this country, in different sections of
which the nut has been cultivated, that
under judicious management it will pro
duce from so to rs bushels to the acre.
But although it is susceptible of easy
and cheap cultivation, and is grown in
this country in very large quantities,
the chief value of the production is
almost entirely overlooked, and the
crop is monopolized by the fruit-stands
at the corners of our city streets. In
the East Indies, and in the south of
France and the countries of Mediterra-
mean Europe and Africa, the nut is
grown almost exclusively for the sake
of the oil; the seed is pressed to obtain
the oil, and the pressed cake, or marc,
is used as food for cattle, and in some
instances is exported to Great Britain
to be employed as a manure.
A series of experiments in feeding
cattle with peanut oil-cake has recently
been made upon the government expert
mental farm in Madras, British India.
The official report of those experiments
is both interesting and instructive. The
experiments were peculiarly satisfacto-
ry in respect to draught cattle, which
were found to thrive much better upon
the peanut oil-cake than upon the ordi-
nary food, and at a reduction of one
half in the cost of feeding. The cake
is stepped before being fed to the cattle,
and four pounds per head are allowed
daily.
The peanut oiI-cake is very little in
ferior to the linseed oil-cake, the cost of
which is fve-fold that of the peanut.
As food for horses the peanut oil cake
was found by these experiments ex-
tremely valuable, the feeding during
two years being attended with the most
gratifying results. Experiments were
also made to ascertain the relative values
of peanut oil-cake and Indian corn as
food for fattening pigs, and to ascertain
the cost of producing a pound of p ork.
-Four pigs of equal age and size were
selected for an experiment, two being
fed upon 4 pounds of peanut oil-cake
daily in addition to the ordinary food,
and two upon pounds of corn instead
of the oil-cake. In eight weeks the
former had increased in weight SO
pounds and the latter SO pounds; from
which it appeared that the peanut oil
cake is more valuable than Indian corn
for producing pork. The cost of the
corn was about double that of the OIL
cake; that is to say, the corn averaged
about one cent pound and the oil. cake
half a cent.