The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-02-13
POTENCY oE TIE PEANUT.
No One Would Think the Humble Goobei
SO Important.

and even where it is most largely grown
its possibilities are for the most part not
at all realized, and it is not by any
means made to yield the highest results
it is capable of. Taking into account
all its sources of value, the peanut ought
to be one of the most profitable Of the
general farm crops in the South. The
following facts about it are i'll the main
condensed from a bulletin of the United
States Department of Agriculture pre-
pared by r. B. Handy of the Office Of
experiment stations.
The yearly production of peanuts in
this country is about 1000, 900 bushels
of % pounds, the bulk of the crop be-
ing produced in Virginia, Georgia, Ten
aessee, and North Carolina. These
1000, 600 bushels, while fully supplying
The present demand of the United
States, constitute but a small part of
the peanut crop of the world. as the ex-
portation from Africa and India in 1892
amounted to nearly 100000 pounds,
of which 222, 1000, 900 pounds went to
Aarseilles for conversion into oil.
The largest part of the American
crop is sold by street venders. but
small amounts are used by confection-
ers, chocolate manufacturers. and for
the manufacture of oil. Peanut oil is
used for lubricating and soapmaking,
and is good substitute for olive oil
for salads and other culinary purposes,
and as substitute for lard and cotto-
lene in butter and cooking. The residue
from oil making, known as peanut
cake" is highly valued cattle food in
the countries of Europe, and is also
ground into fine -four and used as hui
man food. 1t makes good soup, grid
die cakes, mullins, ETC., and is one of
the most nutritive of foods. The vines,
when dried, become very nutritive
hay, readily eaten by stock, though re-
quiring re in the feeding, lest it pro-
duce collie.
The present uses Of the peanut and
its products are likely to be greatly ex-
tended and new channels of utility be
found for it, as has been the case with
cottonseed. With better metho s of
tillage and larger yield per acre, the
cost 81 production could be gre IDLY less
sned. According to the eleventh census
The average yield of peanuts in the
United States in 1889 was 17.6 bushels
per acre, the average in Virginia being
about twenty, and in Tennessee thirty
TWO bushels per acre. This appears to
oe a very low avera ye, especially as Of
fetal and semi-official figures give fifty
or sixty bushels as an average crop, and
one hundred bushels is not am uncom-
mon yield.
While the peanut has been cultivated
in the United States to limited extent
for number of years, it is only since
1866 that the crop has become Of primary
2 Importance in the eastern section of
this country. which seems peculiarly
adapted to its production. Between
1865 and 1870 the rapid spread of the
culture of peanuts was phenomenal.
Each year doubled, and at times in
creased threefold its crop over the pre-.
ceding year, so that this country, from
being large importer of West African
nuts, was soon able to supply the do
mestic demand with the home-raised
article.
Virginia, North CAROLINA and Tennes.
see produce a large part of the peanut
crop of the United States. Within the
last few years this crop has ceased to bt
as profitable as heretofore. The method
Of culture-the annual planting of nuts
ON the same land, the lack of proper ro
tation of crops, the complete removal OF
an vegetation from the land, and the
failure to replenish the soil by means oi
fertilizers-has been great factor ir
reducing the profits of the crop by re-
ducing the ability of the land to pro
duce such crops as We're previously Sc
cured in that section, so that now, in
stead of an average of fifty bushels PEI
acre, with frequent yields of over on,
hundred bushels, the average in the
peanut sections is not over twenty bush,
ais, while the cost of cultivation ha
been but slightly re ,uced.
AS regards food value, peanut ker
nels, with an average of 30 per cent. o.
protein, 40 per cent. of fat, and IA pc
can't. of carbohydrates in the dry ma
tsrial, t,.ke high rink, and should b,
classed with such concentrated foods a.
SOFA beans and cottcnseeds. The vine
are shown by experience to be superio
TO timothy hay as feeding stuff, ant
but slightly inferior to clover hay. Th
food value of the hay is, of course
higher the greater the percentage o
nuts left on the vines in harvesting
The hulls also appear to possess consid
cradle value as feeding stuff, beinI
mnch richer in valuable food constitu
ents (protein, fat and carbohydrates
than cotton hulls, which are extensivel
used in some localities in the South as
coarse fodder and about equal to tn
poorest grades Of hay.-Boston Herald
The New Curate.
The Rev. Gideon Gosling-My arrive
here seems to have caused some excite