Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-02-05
NUMBER 40.
Profits in Peanuts.


Everybody eats peanuts, but very
few know where they are raised or how
they are Handled. They are, strictly
speaking, plebeian article of diet. No
one ever saw peanuts ON fashionable
dinner-table or among the delicacies at
a banquet, yet the amount of these nuts
consumed annually is simply enormous.
Foreign countries have never been
educated to recognize the good quail
ties of the peanut, and consequently
none are exported. Within the last two
years the raising and handling of the
''guber, " as the peanut is called in the
south, has become an important in
dustry. Yet the producing sections are
confined to eastern Virginia and west
ern Tennessee along the Cumberland
river.
The largest markets for peanuts in
the world are Norfolk and Cincinnati,
and in these cities several firms do no.
thing but buy and sell the poor man s
fruit. About two months ago the most
extensive peanut commission house in
Cincinnati removed to st. Louis, and
will try to make this city an outlet for
the Tennessee stock. Strange to say.
st. Louis, although $50 miles nearer
the Cumberland river than Cincinnati,
has done only an insignificant trade in
peanuts. From the usually large guam
tity of ''gubers, seen at confectionery
stores and corner fruit-stands, the I'M
initiated would naturally suppose that
peanuts grew spontaneously, but such
is not the case. They must be tended
with great care, and the crop is very
valuable Lastyear the total yield was
comparatively light, being about 1000
600 bushels, while til season the crop is
over $500, 900 bushels. Last year they
sold at q cents a pound, while this
year they can be had at 81 cents.
The peanut grows very much like a
sweet potato. and the vine resembles
the red clover. Wherever a new leaf
starts out Il tendril is formed, which
extends into the ground. The average
yield is from thirty to seventy bushels
to the acre, and there are about one
hundred peanuts on each vine. The
article is a good one for speculation,
and money can be made by judicious
investments, because peanuts do not
deteriorate with age and keep their
taste for years. The expense of raising
them is twice that of corn. The reason
Of this is that the fruit must be picked
by hand, which is slow and laborious.
The average annual consumption is
over two million bushels. OF course,
the consumption depends upon the
price to great extent.
The experiment of cultivating pea
nuts in California was recently at
tempted with signal success, and the
Golden state will probably become a
rival of Virginia as peanut-producing
locality. A few are raised in North
Carolina, Missouri, and Arkansas. but
the two states referred TO grow nine
tenths Of all the peanuts in The world.
A good deal Of skill is required in
handling gubers, They are shipped in
the rough, and the process of cleaning
and grading is done BY the wholesale
purchaser. The peanuts are e.lptied
from sacks into large bin and are run
through a fan which separates the
chatf. Passing down through another
fan, the light nuts are thrown aside
and the meaty ones run along a groove,
when the black and inferior stock is
picked up by girls, and when the nuts
reach the packing-room there are two
grades. During the various processes
through which they are sent the nuts
become clean and polished. OF course
they must be roasted before people will
eat them. As soon as the river will
permit, a boat will be sent to the Ten
nessee river to buy up as much as pos
siblc of the peanut crop there, and if
possible secure a portion, if not all. of
the Cincinnati trade Peanuts are al
ways staple article, and if St. Louis
succeeds in turning the market here it
will be worth thousands of dollars in a
business ways 50. LouiS Globe Demo
rat