Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-12-02
miscellaneous.
In the Peanut Exchange.
S3 ,OOO, 900 WORTH ANNUALLY EATEN BY
AMERICANS.

AMERlCANe-
Peanuts Fancy hand-picked." shouted
the clerk at the Mercantile Exchange yes
terday. ..What is bid and what are they
offered at %
A dozen or more produce dealers stood
around the room. and the huge black
boards, on which were inscribed the va
rious quotations, gave the exchange an
appearance very like poOl-room at Hun
ter's Point on race day.
peanuts never were called here in the
Exchange until within week or 50"
said dealer who is supposed to handle
two-thirds of the 400. 900 bushels brought
yearly to this market. There's not much
speculation in them just at present
because the crop is uncertain ;but in few
weeks some big deals will be made in
them. There's more money in peanuts
than in corn or cotton and wheat IS no.
where. No one seems to know anything
about peanuts here at the North, and yet
the crop is something enormous. Virginia
alone will produce this year not less than
1900, 600 bushels, tennessee 100000, and
North Carolina 20O. 900. perhaps.
II suppose considerable portion of the
crop is devoted to the production Of pea
nut oil? queried the reporter.
''Oil? There's not one pound OF peanuts
made into oil in this country. That is
popular delusion. At one time it was
manufactured in large quantities as
substitute for olive oil, and for lubricatng
and lighting purposes. and during the
war the entire crop Of the South was de
voted to producing it. when other oil was
scarce. New cotton seed oil has driven it
out of the market both in this country and
in France. where the production of peanut
oil was once very large. Nlne-tenths Of
the oil that comes to this country labeled
pure olive is bogus, and is made either
from peanuts or cotton-seed - principally
the latter. The peanut oil manufactured
in France is made from the African
peanut, which is grown by the negroes in
Guinea, and can be bought in Marseilles
tor cent and half a pound. 1t has more
oil than our nut and is about one-third as
costly.
"Our peanut was bought originally from
Africa and introduced in the South 40
years ago by the negroes. 1t was first
grown in North Carolina, and afterward
in Virginia and Tennessee. The Virginia
soil which is loose and sandy.is best suited
to the crop. and the finest peanuts come
from the district included by the James
River and the Appomattox.
1.-The North Carolina nuts used to be
considered the best 90 years ago. when
they were first raised for the market, but
the Virginia nut has driven them out. In
Virginia they call them peanuts, as we do,
but in North Carolina they are called
'ground-peas, in Tennessee growers,
and in Alabama and Mississippi pinders.'
Now here are some African peanuts
You will observe that they are very small
about quarter the size OF ours-but
compact and full of meat In this paper
are some Spanish nuts, the same size as
the African, but finer; the kernels about
rs big as large pea; 10000 bushels of
them have been imported this year. Plant
one of these little fellows in Virginia
soil and you will have as the result the
ordinary Virginia peanut, four times the
size. II is the soil that makes the differ
ence."
$50 the peanut is used entirely for eat
ing purposes in this countryi'
''Yes, and nearly the entire $3.O00,O00
worth consumed yearly-2S. 900 900
passes through the hands of the vendors
on the street corners. Formerly all the
peanuts were prepared by the farmers.
but now they are bought up in lots and
rendered marketable in factories. The
peanut. as you know is vine which bears
blossoms and sends out shoots, which in
turn put forth from each Joint what are
called pegs These pegs enter the
ground and at a distance of about half an
inch from the surface the peanut forms
and is developed The sheled nut used
as seed is planted in May. and about the
LIST of October the negroes turn up the
vines with pillow or with pitchforks. and
they are heaped up IN shocks to dry in
the sun. They are then picked off by
hand and are bought up in lots by the
large dealers, who prepare them for the
market by cleaning and sorting them ac-
cording to grade. The bags containing
the peanuts are first cut open and their
quality judged. as No. l. No. ,. etc.
They are then thrown into hopper and
pass through revolving cylinder of
stats, which cleans them, and thence
through shute into tanning
mill. and on to long tables of endless
canvas betting. where the bad ones are
picked out. This operation performed,
they are done up in sacks ready for mar
ket, labeled and branded. Amang the
best brands are the Maud S. Oscar
WILDE p. ID. Co. Diamond c. and
Plain G. with p outside
1.-The nut cake rs it is called. which
remains after the oil is expressed from the
peanut. is valuable as fodder. and is some
times ground AS substitute for coffee. II
is not known in this part of the country to
how many uses the peanut can be put.
They will produce half their weight in an
oil which is valuable for lubricating pur-
poses, and which serves admirably for
lighting, as well rs providing good sub
stitute for olive OIL Various dishes can
be made of them, such rs soup, salad GRO
quettes, and an excellent imitation of
baked beans. In Virginia 40 bushels to
an acre make good crop. but in Tennes-
see 60 to so bushels are nothing very ex-
traoriinary. AS said. however. the
Tennessee peanuts are not considered so
fine.
1.-The half million bushels which come
to this city yearly. pass through the hands
Of half dozen commission merchants
who deal chiefly in the article. and from
whom thew are bought by the peanut