Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-24
CULrURE OF THE PEANUT.

Quite number of US farmers here are
| planning to go into peanut culture the
| present season. The GAzETTE's talks or
| peanut culture have led US into it. You
] have made the thing so plain that all cannot
help feeling convinced that it must prove {
| decidedly profitable crop for Texas. But
| 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
a copy of the paper containing that article.
Would you mind repeating it for U.S. Such
| a course on your part would be accepted as
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 a safe name, owing to the fact that the
chufa is often called ground nut. An ar
ticle referring to the ground nut, without
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
hypogea
Roasted peanuts are more or less ex-
tensively sold throughout the United
States, in the winter season at least. More
ofthem 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 a 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 APP
piled. 1t takes thousands of bushels to
make all the peanut candy sold. and ad-
ditional thousands of bushels to fill all the
deIlidlsSs5 of the chocolate manufacturers.
In times past chocolate was made from
chocolate nuts-the seeds of small tropi-
cal tree known to science of TheobromR
cacao-but not so now. Chocolate manu-
facturers have learned that consumers viii
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
picture of the tropical tree.
So you see, there exists Slittle danger of
our ever Cutting the peanrt 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, Tennessee
and North Carolina. Above Tennessee the
crop cannot be made to succeed, hence we
have in the peanut crop climatically
secured to the South. We advocate peanut
culture for Texas on account of knowing
from our own personal familiarity with it
in Tennessee, that Texas possesses every
requirement Of the crop, and furthermore,
because we know the crop to be very
profitable one.
The peanut does best on well-dralned
land of a friable character. \ little sand
in the composition of the soil adds to
its advantages for the crop, owing to the
fact that there is less danger of packing or
baking. Most of our river or creek bottom
lands are exactly right for it provided they
have natural drainage sufficient to prevent
sogginess; that is to prevent water from
standing in the ground within three or
four feet of the surface. Like clover and
alfalfa the peanut is a tap-root plant, and
therefore would be damaged by sloggy
sub-soii. BY far the largest quantity of
peanuts produced in Tennessee are grown
upon the second bottoms (above overflow
of the Tennessee river, lands much like our
bottom lands in Texas, though not near so
good.
The main thing additionally to good nat
ural drainage is soil not inclined to pack
If purely clay soil is cultivated to the
crop an abundance of vegetable matter
should be turned into 1t to keep it friable.
| This should be attended to in the fall pre-
ceding the spring in which the crop is to be.
planted. Turn in vegetable matter-weedS
grass or anything else OF that characters
and let it rot through the winter. The ped.
nut needs fairly good soil for the best res
suits, but not extremely rich soil like cot
ton or corn. And unlike cotton or corn it
never makes the soil any poorer Its long
tap root and deep-feeding peculiarities give