The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-31

9ITlCdn pfOgGnItOr ana COIlOuSeeu U make a great deal of the olive oil w find in our restaurants and groceries
 And 1 don't believe there are man! , people outside of those who have i
 who ever heard of the peanut habit
 You don't like raw peanuts, do you
 1 thought not, No one does until he ac
 quires the habit, and then he wants hi
 raw peanuts just as regular as he Want'
 his tobacco, provided he cheWs ol
 smokes-and if he has the peanut habi
 the chances are he is not tobaeec
 chewer. The funny part of the peanut
 habit is that it prevails only among
 veterans of the late war who served
 either in Virginia or Tennessee or
 North Carolina. These are the states
 where the bulk of the peanut crop is
 grown.
 Perhaps you can remember how
 things were before the war. If you
 can't, I will tell you that the peanut
 then was chiefly a holiday luxury to
 the great mass of people in this coun-
 try. The day when the circus was in town, or when the county fair was
 showing it's pumpkins and four-minute
 horse trots, or when the great and glor-
 ious Fourth of July had come round
 again, were about the only occasions
 when the yearning for the peanut was
 in any measure satisfied. On these
 memorable occasions the nut was shucked and masticated until it l couldn't rest. It was only in the towns
 and large villages that the favored few could have peanuts with them always. Do tlr e,1lf o 1t1t roaster in the whole country outside of the big towns and cities, and the rural dealers bought their stock already roasted and delivered to them in bags. course bags. To-day every crossroads from Maine to California has it's pea nut stand and it's wheezing steam roast CT, and the great American nut has no better standing on circus day or Fourth of July than 1t has on any ordinary day of the year, except that there is greater concentration of energy as to its shucking and chewing on these red-let- ter days.
 Now, then, a large proportion of the soldiers who went to Virginia. Tennes- see, and North Carolina were from the rural districts of the north So, when they got among the peanut patches. they were, metaphorically speaking, right in clover. At first they roasted at their camp fires the peanuts they pulled from the patches, but it wasn't long before they not only acquired taste for them raw, but actually preferred them that way. The result was that the boys discovered after while that they han kered after their peanuts pretty nearly as much as they did for their tobacco, and after they got home they brought the longing with them. What has been the consequence? The demand for pea nuts increased so much Immediately af- ter the war that the crop didn't begin to supply it. Wideawake farmers saw the point, and garden patches where peanuts had been grown for nobody knew how long were abandoned for broad fields which were planted with the popular nut, and to-day Virginia, Tennesse ee and North Carolina are grow ing something like 3,000000 bushels of peanuts a year-a result due almost en- tirely to the civil war and the contract ing of the peanut habit by the soldiers of both armies.
 Naturally, the returned soldiers loud call for peanuts soon placed the nut within their reach and that of the rural population to the furthest limit of 'wayback, and the nut ceased forever to be a holiday luxury. The floor of the backwoods grocery IS now filtered nightly with the shucks of peanuts hot from a revolving roaster as thiclIly as it ever was on the Fourth of July In the olden time, and the old soldier can get his supply of peanuts at Way Back | Corners just as fresh and regular, al- | most as if he were still on the old camp | ground yanking the nuts from their na- tive soil
 When the war broke out most of | the peanuts consumed in this country | were raised in North Carolina. A great | many were imported from Africa They | were of inferior quality. The best of | the ante-bellum peanuts, as a matter of fact, were poor compared with the nuts grown to-day. In fact, even the latter demand for peanuts has not | seemed to have had the effect of inn proving the quality or increasing the yield of the North Carolina product very much, Virginia and Tennessee though, woke right up under the in- creased demand, and improved cultiva- tion has produced a nut, especially in that Is as near perfection as can be. For all that, many old soldiers prefer the little, thin-sheled, strong aavored Carolina nut to the best Vir- ginia nut. Tt seems to git there better and quicker veteran said to me once.
 'While the Virginia peanuts are the pest, their popularity was threatened 'ew years ago. Consumers began Co of their having a peculiar dis agreeable taste and smell, and they lid, too, What caused this was a mys- cry to the trade for a long time. Fin lily it was learned that sometimes the hells of a growing crop are discolored y a prolonged spell of wet weather, lnd as one thing that recommends the Virginia peanut as a favorite in the market is it's clean, white, glstening hell, process of cleaning the damaged rop was invented. In it certain chem calls were used that impregnated the neat of the nut while cleaning the 4 hell. When this was discovered the rtificial cleansing of peanut shells was discontinued until the difficulty in the ,rocess could be remedied, which has een done.
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