Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-03-22
THE BUSINESS In PEANUTS.
Where they Grow and How they are
Prepared for the Market.
Fom the New York Sun

Prepared for the Market.
Fom the New York Sum-
The peanut business is large enough
to be interesting. SUGGEST ully cult
waited, they are more profitable than
cotton or tobacco, and the farmers of
Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and
Tennessee are turning their attention
to them. Virginia is the great peanut
state, and from the counties on the
James river there are yearly shipped to
northern markets thousands of bushels.
These nuts are large, and Of fine flavor.
From North Carolina come the smaller,
or Africa peanuts, and some are
really imported from Africa. These
are small, and of inferior flavor. For
merly, the cleaning, Smelling, and sort
ing were done by hand, but now ma
chlnery does the work better.
pay for the nuts in the market
from ST. to $3.50 bushel," said Mr..
Vellines, a Washington street dealer to
a Sa'' reporter, and I buy most Of
them of commission merchants on the
wharves, for find it does not pay to
ship them myself When the nuts
come to us they are as you see them in
this bag, dirty, mixed with vines, many
Of them light or broken, shucks and
meats all together. Now, if you will
come up stairs I'll show you the pro-
cess through which we put them"
There was on the fourth floor of the
establishment a large wooden cylinder,
ten feet long, four feet in diameter,
and open at the ends. 1t was revolv-
ing rapidly, and into one end from a
large hopper was pouring steady
stream of dirty peanuts; and from the
other end a stream of clean ones-the
dirt rubbed off by attrition. They fell
into hopper III the floor aud disap-
peared
There is fan just below the floor"
said Mr.. Vellines, (which blows all the
dirt, chaff, vines and shucks out from
the nuts, and the mass passes into bags
below. The nuts run down to tray
cling wooden apron below where they
are assorted by girls. Before we 60
down [ want you to see the shelters.
We used to pay from five to ten cents
a pound to have them shelled by hand,
and good shelter could not average
mole than fifty pounds day. Now
we can shell $4,000 pounds day for a
cent pound. Here are the shelters
Into these hoppers are put all the
poorer and smaller nuts, and as you
see, they pass into the shelter, which
cuts up the shell. Meats and shells
pass down to the floor below, where
they are separated by fan. The
meats are then passed through gradu-
ated sleeves, worked by hand, and as
sorted into five different sizes that
bring from 5 to II cents pound.
Without this asserting they would only
sell for seven cents pound. We shall
soon do all the asserting by ma
chinery"
On the third floor four Italian girls
stood before the travelling apron, and,
as the nuts came into view, they deity
picked out the bad ones, and the larger
stream of good nuts passed down out Of
sight. On the floor below there was a
large inclined table, upon which a
stream Of large, bright pea
nuts was falling. Three girls picked
out the few bad nuts that had escaped
the fingers of the girls above The
nuts passed from the table into large
SACKS, anu were ready Tor sale.
"The poorer ones that you saw the
girls pick out above" said Mr.. Veil
ines. care again taken up stairs and
shelled and sold to the confectioner.
The meats are good, of course The
shells are ground into small pieces, and
we sell every bit for a cent to cent
and half pound. They 60 to Phila-
| delphia and Baltimore, and I think are
used in making feed, for there is a
good deal of nutriment in peanut
she'll Here, pointing to furnace, lis
where we roast the peanuts. That cyl
inder holds ten bushels. After the nuts
are thus cleaned and assorted the best
sell for from 81. 80 to $3.50 bushel."
Coal for the Centennial.