The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-09-19


excellent article for fertilizing
purposcs-so much 20 that it is worth
the price Of digging the pea, and farm
ers sometimes give it in payment for
that work. In making and tending
the shocks skill is required to prevent
over-heatiug and mould
Peanuts are of two kinds, distin-
guished as the "bunching" and the
running vines, denoting the manner
of their growth, but no separation is
kept in the market. In Tennessee Is
produced the cred nut variety of
which the origin is unknown, at least
to Norfolk. The tendency of the husk
in this variety is to grow long and
thin, and to contain more than two
sometimes fodr or iive--kernels, the
skin of which is rich chestnut red,
much darker than the color of the sea-
board variety The nuts, as fast AZ
picked off the shocks in the field, are
placed in bags holding four bushels
each, and are sold TO cleaning factor
les in Norfolk, Petersburg Smithfeld
and elsewhere, chiefly along the lines
of the Norfolk and Western and Sea-
board and Roanoke railroads. The
Norfolk factories are the largest i'll the
world and consume twice the amount
of all the rest put together.
The bags as they come from the
farm are hoisted to the top floor of the
factory, where their contents are sorted
into four grades, the last containing
chiefly refuse. Upon the care with
which this is done depends in large
measure the profit of the busines. The
peanuts of each class are then poured
into hoppers which carry them into the
cleaning machines on the floor below,
differing from one another according
to the grade they treat Each of these
machines consists of an iron cylinder
about twelve feet long by three feet in
diameter, trife smaller at one end
than at the other, so that there may be
a steady overflow outward. These cyl
inders revolve with considerable rapid
ity and inclose a contrivance by which
the cargo of nuts is carried around
with still greater speed, and, at a certain
point in each revolution, thrown across
the cylinder with some force. This
jar dislodges all the soil remaining in
the crevices of the rough bark of the
husk, while the friction of nut against
nut polishes the husk to the required
fitness for market. A blower attached
to each cylinder carries the disagreea-
bic and dangerous dust into chimney
| flue. Localities and seasons vary in
respect to the degree of hardness of
the peahusk produced, and the treat
ment in polishing must be adapted to
the kind of material in hand. If too
much force is exerted, the husk may
be broken, or it may be abraded and
thus made unfit for roasting, to which
the presence of the external enamel put
on by nature is essential. From each
cylinder the polished peanuts pour
steadily upon a moving broad belt or
table, divided lengthwise by fixed par
titions into three divisions. Down
each side division flows the stream of
peanuts received from the cylinders,
and passes beneath the fingers of negro
girls, who, with amazing rapidity, pick
out all the small defective and discol-
ored specimens, and toss them into the
central compartment, where they are
carried on TO fall into receptacle by
themselves, while the perfect ones re.
main Us selected stock. There are
many of these tables in the room, and
the busy girls raise in wild chorous
strains of plantation and camp meeting
| v,nln.l,,p hi,h Cnnrl
amid the noise of the machinery and
the rustic of the moving nuts. The
picking is not hard work, and the girls
like it. Some have been in the facto-
ry several years, and have become ex-
ceedingly nimble, They are paid from
forty to fifty cents day. As the nuts
fall from these asserting tables they
are carried by sohutes down the ground
floor, where they pour into bags and
are speedily ready for branding and
shipment.
The 'culls, or refuse stock remain.
ing after two or three better grades
have been selected, are by no means
lost. Nothing is wasted in peanut or
tobacco manufacture. This refuse goes
into a machine which huslls it, and sep.
arates the light shells from the kernels.
No doubt here, as in some other parts
OF the process, the use of graduated
blasts of air might be introd duced to ad-
vantage. The shells are sold as horse
bedding and for mixture in artificial
guano. The kernels 90 into cylin lri.
cal sieves which sort them into certain
sizes. The best kernels fetch high
price, the second best sell well, and the
trash remaining is bought 10y two OF
three farmers who find it excellent feed
for fattening hogs.
| According to recent statement by
Mr.. Copeland, of The Tirginial, fol-
the season of SS3 "a the Norfolk clean
ers have handled 214,000 bags Peters
burg, $4,000 Smithfeld, 10000; othel
factories about 25,00O. There was OF
hand August 18th, 1884, $4,000 bush
els, making the years crop in Virgins
(mainly) 100000 bags, or about a mil
lion and half bushels. This is fcui
times as great as the yield ten years
ago, but was largely exceeded in 1880
and 1881, when the crop was more
than two and quarter million bush
els.
The great drought of the present
season is unfavorable and causes the
crop to be backward, but no serious
fears are entertained of harm to it.
The market has been much depressed
for few months there is an unusu
al quantity of stock OIL hand "a good
peanut may be kept three years with
out harm) and big crop coming, st
that prices much under those of last
year may be expected, but the farmers
will Iind themselves well repaid fol
their trouble in what is known as one
of the staple industries of Southeastern
Virginia.
Among the most blessed of all con
triyances of nature is that which pre-
vents man from being disturbed by
his own snoring,
1t is said that the reason Uncle Sam
my Iilden was never married was be