Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-01-22
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
HANKERlNe FoR PEANUTS.

nickels worth Of raw peanuts. Never
heard OF the peanut habit, eh? fon
don't like raw peanuts either, do you?
i thought not No one does until he
has acquired the habit. and then he
wants his raw peanuts just as regular as
he wants his tobacco, II he chews to-
bacco, or his cigar, if he smokes. The
funny part of the peanut habit is that
it is prevalent only among veterans Of
the late war who served either in Vir-
ginia, Tennessee or North Carolina
Those are the States whore all the pea
nuts are grown. II you can remember
how things were before the war, you
will know that the peanut was then
only holiday luxury to the great mass
of people in this country. The day when
the circus was in ta'vn, during the coun-
~ fair, and the great and glorious
Fourth Of July were about the only oc-
casions that the popular ycarning Tor
the peanut was in any measure satisfied.
At those memorable times the nut was
shucked and masticated till it couldn't
rest, and il was only in the towns and
villages that the favored few could have
it with them always. Before the war
there wasn't peanut rooster in the en-
tire country outside of the big towns,
and the country dealers bought their
stock already roasted To-day every
crossroads from Maine to California has
its peanut stand and its Wheeling roast
er, and the great American nut has no
better standing circus day or Fourth
Of July than it has any other day Of the
year.
"A large proportion Of the soldiers
who went to Virginia and Tennessee
and North Carolina from the North were
from the rural districts, where the pea
nut was only for their delectation on
gala days or their occasional visit to
town. So when they got down right
among the peanut patches they were
metaphorically in clover. AT first they
roasted at their camp-ires the peanuts
they pulled from the patches, but it
wasn't long before they not only acquir-
ed a taste for them raw, but many Of
them preferred them raw to roasted, the
same as a genuine old lover Of the weed
ESeSers his tobacco undisguised by any
other substance, no matter how sweet or
toothsome it may be-. The result was
that the boys discovered after time
that they hankered after their peanuts
pretty nearly as much as they did after
their tobacco, and when they came back
home the longing came with them.
What has been the consequence? The
demand for peanuts increased so imme-
diately after the war that the crop
didn't begin to supply it. Wideawake
farmers saw the point, and garden
patches whore peanuts had been grown
for nobody knows how many years were
abandoned for broad fields which were
planted with the popular nut and to-
day Virginia, Tennessee. and North
Carolina are growing nearly 100000
bushels of peanuts year-a result due
almost entirely to the civil war and the
contracting of the peanut habit by the
soldiers. Naturally the returned sol
diers' demand for peanuts placed them
within reach of the rural population to
the furtherest limit OF 'waybac6, and
the nut ceased to be holiday luxury
The floor of the backwoods grocery is
now Uttered nightly with the shucks Of
peanuts hot from a revolving washer as
thickly as it ever was the Fourth Of
July in the old time, and the old
soldier can get his supply OF raw
at Wayback Corners Just as fresh and
regular, almost, as if he were still on
the old camp-ground and pulling the
nuts out Of the ground.
when the war broke out most Of the
peanuts consumed in this country were
raised in North Carolina. \ great many
were imported from Africa. They we're
Of an inferior quality In fact. the best
ante-bellum peanuts were poor compared
with the nuts grown to-day. In fact.
the later demand for peanuts has not
had the effect of improving the North
Carolina product or increasing its yield
to any extent Virginia and Tennessee,
however, woke right up under the IN
creased demand and improved cultiva-
ton has procured a nut especially in
Virginia, that is rs near perfection as it
can be. For all that, many an old sol
der prefers the little thin-shelled,
strong favored Carolina peanut to the
best Virginia.
at seems to git there better vet
eran said to me once The Virginia
nuts are the best; but people addicted to
their use have complained frequently
of late that they have apeculiar and dis
agreeable .aste and smell What caused
these was for a long time mystery 1t
was finally learned that some times the
shells of growing crop are discolored by
prolonged wet weather, and as one thing
that recommends the Virginia peanut as
a favorite in the market Is its clean,
white, glistening shell, process Of
cleansing the damaged crops was invent
ed year or so ago. In ii certain chemi-
calls we're used that impregnated the
meat while cleansing the shells 1t is
not lilSely that the artificial perfecting
OF peanut shells viii be continued. un-
less the evil effects OF the Chemicals on
the meat can be overcome.
Il don t suppose there are many peo-
pie who know that the peanut came to
this country with tho first cargo of
slaves that We're landed on our shores
1t is native of Africa, and in Is orig