Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-02-14
CULTURE OF THE PEANUT.
PARTICULARS ABOUT AN EATABLE
BOYS AND GIRLS ARE FOND OF.

PARTICULARS ABOUT AN EATABLE
BOYS AND GIRLS ARE FOND OF.
How the Little Nut Grows and Yields a
Large Crop-Its Culture in Anerica-The
Gouber Is n Great Favorite with the
Colored People-A Substitute for Coffee.
The peanut, sometimes called ground pea
IL ground NUT is known in the southern states
as the pindar and gouber; and the French
call it pistach de terre. 1t is generally be-
lieved to be native of Africa, where it is the
principal food of some of the Congo tribes;
but four or five species of the nut are found
growing wild in Brazil Its cultivation has
been successfully introduced into Spain.
In this country it is raised principally in
the states of Virginia, North Carolina and
Tennessee, and has been more recently Guilt
waited in California.
The culture of the peanut is rot difficult
Land suited to the raising of corn or melons
is generally selected, and care is taken that
there is nothing in the ground that would
stain the shells. Planting time begins when
the danger to plants from frost has passed
The ground is plowed five or six inches deep
and then narrowed. The nuts are taken
from the pods without breaking the skins, are
planted two or three together in rows about
three feet apart and twenty inches from hill
to hill, and are covered with two inches of
earth. When in a short time the vine is eight
or ten inches long and begins to blossom it is
covered with an inch of soil, care being taken
to leave the tip end uncovered. The vines
blossom profusely with small yellow flowers,
and as the flower fades away sharp pointed
stem grows out from its base, turns down
ward ana buries itself in the ground; on the
end of the stem a thick shelled pod forms and
enlarges rapidly. All the care that is neces-
sary after the stem returns to the ground is
to keep the land free from weeds In Octo-
Der, when the nuts are ripe, the farmer
loosens the earth and pulls up the vines, to
which the nuts adhere and turns them over
to dry. He performs this work only in pleas
ant weather, and when the ground is dry.
After the vines have lain in the sun for a
day, which is generally sufficient time for
driving them, the grower stacks them around
a stake about five feet high.
HANDLING THE CROP.
The vines remain in stack from three to
five weeks, after which the nuts are picked
off, placed in sacks and shipped to market. A
vine under favorable conditions often bears
more than a hundred nuts, and the yield per
acre averages forty bushels. Most of the
Virginia and North Carolina crop, which is
about two-thirds of the whole crop of the
country, is marketed in Norfolk and Peters
burg. Va; the rest, with the whole crop of
, Tennessee, is carried to st. Louis or Cincin-
natl. In each of these cities are factories
where the nuts as they are delivered by the
farmer are bought The nuts as they appear
at this stage, with earth and their stems still
clinging to them, are hardly to be recognized
as the bright nut we afterwards see on the
corner stand. To polish them, and to re-
move the earth and stems, the nuts are
secured in large iron cylinders from which
they pass through blast fans, in which
strong current of air separates the fully de-
veloped nuts having sound kernels from those
imperfectly filled, and from empty pods The
sound nuts fall through the fan upon picking
tables, where those which are discolored are
taken out and the bright ones are passed on
into sacks which will each hold about one
hundred pounds of nuts. Each sack is mark
ed with the brand which indicates the grade
of its contents The dark and the partially
filled nuts are shelled, and the kernels are
used by confectioners in making peanut
candy The work of picking over and sepa-
rating the nuts is performed by little girls,
dDOuU GW0uUy VI WllOiI ctlO CAlplOyOu e1O
every table.
Three varieties of peanuts are grown in
this country, the white. the red and the Span
isb. The white, which is the most important
variety, has nut with two kernels with pink
skins; its vine spreads along the ground, in
this respect unlike that of the red variety,
which grows more upright alsl in bunch.
The pod of the red nut holds three and some
and has dean rod skin
The Spanish is much smaller NUT with a
lighter skin and milder flavor than either of
the others possesses. The entire cropis shelled,
and used especially in that rich CONNECTION
known as nougat The history of the COM
petition between the home product and the
imported peanut is interesting and gives one
some idea of the Importance of the peanut
trade.
INCREASING DEMAND.
In 1872, and for several years previous,
| there were annually imported into New
York half million bushels of peanuts, the
greater part of which came from Africa and
the rest from Spain. The American farmers
gradually awakened to perception Of the
profits to be made by raising the nuts.
Melon patches were turned into peanut
fields. and in 1878 the seed of the Spanish nut
was planted in Virginia. The product was
found to equal that of the foreign nut, and
| as it cost two or three cents pound less to
market the crop, it was not long before the
| imported nut was driven from the market.
At present Virginia, North Carolina and
Tennessee count ''gouber raising" as one of
their chief Industries.
| In 1880 the consumption of peanuts in the
United States was less than two million
bushels. In 1887 the amount had increased
to four and third million bushels, all of
which was eaten in the United States and
| Canada The demand for peanuts has
trebled in the past few years, and the crop
has never been sufficient to supply the de-
mand. The price of peanuts varies accord
ing to the supply. The average price last
year was five cents pound. Americas
average crop, which is estimated at three
million bushels, represents value of three
million three hundred thousand dollars at
wholesale price. The peanut is a more use
full product than people in general think it
to be- We all know how eagerly it is sought
after in the roasted state to keip boys enjoy
a baseball match or a circus; but its use in
the roasted form by no means measures the
extent of its value, or the variety of uses to
which it is put. The nuts contain from ~ to
so per cent. of a nearly colorless, bland, fixed
oil, which resembles olive oil, and is used for
similar purposes. The oil is principally en-
ployed in the manufacture of the finer grades
of soap. In 1888 Virginia began to manu-
facture peanut flower, which makes pecu-
liarly palatable biscuit, and North Carolina
has long made pastry of pounded peanuts
1t is also eaten for dessert, and it is roasted
as substitute for coffee The peanut is very
nutritious. The negroes use it in very many
places in making porridge custard, and pre-
pare from it beverage. The vine forms
fodder as good as clover hay, and hogs fatten
on what they find on the fields after the crop
has been gathered. George B. Spear in
Montreal Star.