Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-04-18
Letter From the Peanut Belt.

PEAEUT PROFITS---S FOLA. ADi'
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, LUMBER IN
rEREsTs, MANUFACTURES, sc.
Correspondence of the Staunton VINDIcAToR.1
SUFFOLK. VA.
NANsEMOND Co., April IA. J
This town is right in the heart of the
peanut section. and peanuts and lumber
have in the last eight years changed a
struggling rusty looking village, bordering
upon a Nansemond river swamp. as the
writer saw it eight years ago, to growing,
we'll built. pretty town of twenty-five hun
bred Inhabitants, AMI filed up the swamp
with factories and business houses. Some
of the largest and handsomest stores and
some of the prettiest residences in VIZ
GINA are right here in this new. old town
of Suffolk. The history Of @ little nut
which can work such changes ought to be
interesting to the readers of the VIND1-
GATOR, especially as its culture and trade
are novel to most of those readers.
The first questions of an Augusta far
mer with produce to sell when he steps
into commission house in Staunton are,
How is wheat to-day?" or what are
YOU paying for corn now?" Here it is,
what are peanuts to-day, first quality?
How are saps? What are you paying for
shelled? &C., &c. The merchant takes
peanuts for his goods, the farmer sells a
horse and takes peanuts in payment,
negro buys an old mule with few bags
of peanuts, the churchman pays bis
preacher in peanuts and the Spectator
fl1t1 NJ holds
them few months, sells and makes a
fortune or goes under as he may be in
luck or out of it.. The business has turn
ed this country upside down or rather
downs up, and it is said that in this
tier of counties, Nansemond, Isle of
Wight, Surry, Southampton and Sussex,
which comprise the peanut belt, the prop
erty, land and everything else in proper
ton, has risen so much in value that it is
worth more than before the war, even in
Guiding the slaves.
Peanuts are down now, Ct cts per Id. for
the best, II and 2 for ''saps" or the
faulty ones. A good price is u cents and
the majority of last years crop has been
realized. Some of the farmers have their
peanuts still on the vine slowed away
now in their barns or picked off and
bulked, which they can afford to do
waiting for "a rise;;" others have sold
because they must sell, and spectators
are, many Of them, holding because it's
money lost to sell, while others sold in
time and are happy. With one horse, A
hand can cultivate Is acres In peanuts
besides raising enough corn for home use.
A common yield is 100 bushels to the acre
weighing % pounds per bushel, and SELL
ing at cents The cost of prod notion is
from $25 to $50 per acre, leaving 1925
profit. This is perhaps too large for an
day who told me he had sold his crop
made off of 10 acres, for 81 500 orE$1a0 per
acre.
The manure used in peanut culture is
oyster shell lime, most which is found in
abundance along the Nansemond and
james River bottoms, and swamps and
woods EARTH The burning of oyster shells
for lime is quite a business here. The
shells are brought by the ship load from
Baltimore and Norfolk as ballast, the
vessels returning loaded with lumber.
Fifty tons of lime can be made here daily.
the farmers buying it IN large quantities
for their peanut land. it being shipped in
close box cars thrown in loosely like so
much wheat and sold at 81 per ton Or $40
for car load. A great many shells are
dealers. and also by the farmers, at or
cents per bushel, who burn them in their
own wood kilns. This is busy time with
them manuring and breaking up their
land. After being prepared, it is thrown
up in beds and furrow laid Oft in each,
into which the peanuts are dropped, two
peas in hill II or Is inches apart and
covered with plow.
In the cultivation, the chief aim of the
farmer is to keep the grass out of bis
crop, no other crop is so much Injured by
grass. Fifteen or twenty years ago. pea
nuts were cultivated chiefly in gardens
for family use. and it was the popular be-
lief that the pea came from the bloom as
does the garden pea. The blossoms were
accordingly carefully and lightly covered
with earth from time to time as they ap-
peared. That practice has been shown to
be time and labor lost and has long since
dropped into dIsuse, it appearing that the
peas are like potatoes, formed On the roots
of the vine. When the peas are ripe they
are ploughed up, the earth shaken FROM
the vines and they, with the peanuts hang
ing to them, stacked in piles upon sticks,
which are stuck up all over the field. Thus
they are left to dry and in this condition
are preyed upon by everything that can
get to them-birds, rats, cattle, horses,
hogs, and even dogs. The crows and black
birds are particularly destructive, the
fields often being black with them and
when Frightened off by gunners, they fly to
the woods with pea in each claw and
one in their mouth, and it is said, one
walking through the woods at this season
of the year finds peanut bulls everywhere.
Generally, as soon as the peas are dry
they are picked from the vines, being as
sorted with some care into first and second
quality or ''saps." The vines are slowed
away for winter food for cattle and the
best nuts, in four bushel bags, weighing
from 30 to 30 pounds are bought by clean
ers. There are several Of these cleaning
factories in Petersburg and Norfolk, and
one at Smithfeld. Here being run through
large cylinders, the dirt is entirely re.
moved, the empty nuts are blown off and
the light and half nuts are picked from
the good double ones by scores of women
who stand on each side of long tables
over which pass broad, slowly moving
belt-like frames. After being cleaned and
assorted, the best nuts bring from TO 10
cents per pound. The faulty nuts are
hulled by another machine and the kerr
ne Is sold to the candy makers. At varl-
Gus points throughout the belt there are
individuals engaged in this Smelling BUSH
ness who buy UP the inferior quality Of
peas from the farmers and during the
winter, do good business Smelling them
for the candy trade. Even the bulls are
utilized, being sold for manure, used as
fuel in the factory engines and of late
manufactured into paper.
Last year was not an average good year
but the crop is estimated as follows -
Virginia, 100000 bushels; Tennessee,
100000; North Carolina, 1000. The
Virginia nut stands much the highest in
market, the shell being winter and nicer,
and the pea sweeter: owing to the clear ga.
Tennessee nut has three and sometimes
four peas in it, they are much redder than
the Virginia peas and have beany taste.
There are few African peas in the mar
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