Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-20
CULTURE OF THE PEANUT.

Quite a number of US farmers here are
| planning to go into peanut culture the
present season. THE GAzETTE's talks on
peanut culture have led US into it. You
have made the thing so plain that all cannot
help feeling convinced that it must prove a
decidedly profitable crop for Texas. Bu.
most of US are without instructions rela-
tive to culture and management of the
crop. About one year ago you had an
article giving full instructions in that direc-
ton, but not one of US can now get hold Of
q copy of the paper containing that article.
Would you mind repeating it for usl Such
a course on your part would be accepted as
a great favor by MANY FARMERS.
Parker county, Tex.
Following is the main subject Of the ar
ticle referred to:
The most universally known common
name for the crop is peanut In some To-
calities it is called ground nut, but this Is
not safe name, owing to the fact that the
chufa is often called ground nut An ar
ticle referring TO the ground nut, without
a minute description, would leave the
reader in doubt as to which of the two was
meant. A very common name for it in the
South is pindar, while the negroes of the
Southern states almost invariably refer to
it as ''the goober" Its botanical name,
that by which it is known to scientists in
all parts Of the civilized world, is Archis
hypog9a-
Roasted peanuts are more or less ex-
tensiveiy sold throughout the United
States, in the winter season at least. More
of them are consumed at the North than at
the South, however, Northern city with
out peanut stands here and there all along
its business streets would now be looked
upon as veritable curiosity. While the
Southern cities are not yet fully up TO the
cities of the North in their patronage Of
peanut vendors, they are rapidly falling
into line.
To be sold as roasted does not cover near
all the uses to which the product is now ap-
piled. 1t takes thousands Of bushels to
make all the peanut candy sold, and ad-
ditional thousands of bushels to fill all the
demands of the chocolate manufacturers.
In times past chocolate was made from
chocolate nuts-the seeds of a small trOpi.
cal tree known to science Of TheobrOma
cacao-but not so now. Chocolate manu-
facturers have learned that consumers will
drink peanut "chocolate'with Just as much
relish as they would the other kind, and
since peanuts of temperate America are
much cheaper than chocolate nuts Of the
tropics, the chocolate Of to-day usually
lacks great deal of being exactly in ac-
cord with the label on the package carrying
a picture of the tropical tree.
So you see, there exists little danger OF
our ever Cutting the peanut market. The
demand for the product, already very large,
is rapidly on the increase with each sue
ceeding season.
Most of the peanuts on the American
market are raised in Virginia, Tennesses
and North Carolina. Above Tennessee tina
crop cannot be made to succeed, hence we
have in the peanut crop dramatically
secured to the South. We advocate peanut
culture for Texas on account of knowing
from our own personal familiarity with Il
in Tennessee, that Texas possesses eYerJ
requirement of the crop, and furthermore
profitable one.
The peanut does best on well-dralned