The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1898-01-19
Quite as Uncertain as the Awakening from
LOYe's Young Dream.
IDIOsYNcRAsIEs OF THE MARKET
so Hmm Knows what May 10 tho
Crop or tho FulIncss Thcrcof-a
Rishy and Uncertain business
-l.canut oil and Some OF sis Uses

| Probably the most uncertain thing
In life, next TO Il love affair. Is the
peanut market. Its nckleness Is
proverhial. The operator who retires
at night Knowing what the price OF
| GoObers Will be the next morning Is
more than Il prophet. He mus, hold u
large ward of fate, as it were, in the
! hollow Of his hand.
Virginia raises and manufactures
more peanuts than any other State in
| the Union, and Norfolk is the center
OF the trade. There's many IL transac-
ton i'll single day that the outside
world knows nothing OF. 1t is about
the only business on earth in which q
well informed man doesn't know
| where he is at"
Men who speculate in corn, wheat or
cotton know almost to n bushcl or bale
what the crop is, and buy and sell ac-
cordinSly. If there is any man who
| knowr; what the peanut crop is. let
him stand forth that his neisilbors
may gaze upon his face and call him
gifted beyond the measure of man
k!hd. Incrc are certain operators who
once thought they knew. That was
when they were young. They never
deludc themselves any more
The reason for this lack of knowl-
eaSc does not lie in 4 lack nf inrorma-
| ton. On the contrary, Information is
abundant. The trouble is it is unre-
liapie' largely. Approach a peanu.
, on the size of his crop and he
! begins TO act as though you had asked
nm TO swap horses with YOU
some of the situations in the pea
nut trade are exceedingly humorous to
thoSe on the outside. For instance
mol long ago Il firm, which had long,
stock on hand. sent out letters to Gus
| toners notifying them Of the alarming
l "a
small, and If they were expected to
huy, then was the accepted time.
| Nbout the same time some other
opera tors. who were painfully short.
notified the peanut purchasing popu-
lation that the crop was simply run
hin$ overt was so larSe-and ad-
rlSed that there was no hurry at all
about the matter. Having performed
ms solemn duty to their customers,
| they proceeded to repleuish as hes.
they could, their attcnunted stocks.
| IL was about this time that some
poor. hefuddled grower out in the
county wrote q pathetic letter to his
newspaper and asked If il would kind
! ~ inform him what was the true state
OF affairs. He has NUT; to sell. but
owing TO conflicting statements he did
not know whether 10 hold them or let
| them so.
The newspaper man to whom this
| query was referred forthwith per-
| formed n miracle. He said he did no;
| know
AS a matter of fact. neither did the
operators. They simply guessed at il.
ana guessed the way that suited them
! hest.
Another feature of the business Is
that 1t is restricted 10 such narrow
limits that it is very easy for one
manufacturer TO find out what another
I . - III at,
are unusual and large speculations
r!Skicr than powder magazines and
! lighted matches.
/ Let Mr. ~. hatch Q nice little plan
to sell big LOT OF goods at certain
| price some time in the future. Let
/ him send out HIS circulars Orders
/ flow in on him. Contracts are made
/ and Mr.. y. goes out to find the stock
/ to meet tie demand. He finds instead
that Mr. g. ana doubtless several of
/ LIS naiGhbors have dropped to his
game. and already corralled the crop.
! II Mr.. y. wants to fiji his orders he
must buy from Mr.. +. and his neigh
| hors or cancel the contracts In the
meantime, nf course, the price of
gochcrs has gone up.
Eut it is one Of The paculiaritics of
| the market that It cannot be held long
at any figure so the chances are thnt
as soon rs Mr.. a. has lest all the
! money he can, the price will go down
again. This may be because. as is
! often the case, more nuts have been
discovered somewhere where more
nuts never had any busincgs TO he. or
/ else some other operator on the 0ut-
| side Of the scheme has big stock OF
his own on ?land, ana begins to cut
| prices with that delightful and mali
clouS serenity so characteristic of the
peanut iohber.
! So ii is that mon handling pc,-
nuts nave learned to watch each
/ 0thor very narrowly. and 10 buy ana
/ sell as closely as possible Ii has been
found, too, that in this business every
! iitt!e nj counts, and more and more
as the years so by the manufacturers
| are saving their waste material and
! had stock and converting it into some
thing salahlc. This transfer to the
profit column OF what was formerly
a, loss r. beginning to be a conGilcra-
bie factor in the success Of certain
manufacturers
y year or 81 ago the American Food
ana OIL company was established here
ana It's plant is now in operation in
bramh!eton, converting peanut refuse
into cattle food ana making peanut
meal and oil.
Speaking of peanut oil, some time
ago the Nellines soap factory made an
/ excellent soap Of it. Indeed. 1t was
one OF the pioneers in this direction.
ana III THE connection the following
rom me Philadelphia Record, will be
interesting:
In view of the fact that there is a.
Suptrapnhnancc Of peanuts raised
every year in Virginia, North Cave
lima ana other parts Of the South. the
suggestion is made that peanut oil he
used more extensively in ttharfp,cv