Evening star., 1898-10-08
ABOUT PIE ANUTs.
Their Popularity Became General
After the Civil war

THE American people are evidently very
p9ruai to peanuts remarked a large pea
nut planter in Virginia to the writer re-
Gently, for there are nearly 4oo0,UD0 BUSH
els Of them consumed In the United States
annually. Before the civil war the peanut
was only holiday luxury to the majority
or the people living In the north. the day
when the circus was in town, during the
country fair and the great and glorious
Fourth of July being the principal occa-
sions that the popular yearning for the nut
was in any measure satisfied. The product
then amounted to barely $4,000 bushels a
year
AT the close of the war when the SOL
diers returned north thousands Of them had
cultivated such a liking for the nut, which
they had often pulled from the ground and
roas ted at their campfires while in Nir-
ginia, Tennessee and North Carolina that
the crop then raised in these states didn't
begin to supply the demand. Wideaw Ike
farmers saw the point, and small garden
Patches where peanuts had been grown for
generations were soon abandoned for broad
fields, and today Virginia ana North Caro-
lima are growing 4.0oO'o0 bushels of pea
nuts a year-a result due almost entirely to
the civil war and the habit the federal
troops contracted of eating large uuauti-
ties OF the nuts. Naturally, the returned
soldiers demand for peanuts placed them
within reach Of the rural population in the
north. and the nut soon ceased to be a hollis
day luxury.
When the war broke out most Of the
peanuts consumed in this country vera
raj Bed in North Carolina. A great n.e ny
We're also imported from Africa. They weis .
of inferior quality. In fact, the best ante
bellum peanuts were poor compared with
the nuts grown today. HUI the demand
for the nuts in recent years has not had
the effect of improving the North Carolina
product or increasing its yield TO any great
extent. Virginia and Tennessee, however
woke right up under the increased demand
and improved cultivation has produced
nut, especially in Virginia, that is as near
perfect 1t can be.
Il don't suppose there are many people
who know that the peanut came to this
country with the first cargo OF slaves that
were landed on our shores. 1t is a native
of Africa, and in its original state as full
of grease almost as bit Of pork CultlVa-
ton and change of soil have greatly re-
ducsd the oleaginous quality of the nut,
although the North Carolina variety has
enough grease yet to lind ready sale in
France, where it joins its African ancestor
and cottonseed in supplying not a little Of
the olive oil we find in the restaurants and
family groceries. Norfolk Va. is the great-
est peanut center in the world, and handles
annually 200 900 bags, or s00O. 900 bushels.
'It is pretty sight to see a peanut plan
tation when the vines are III blossom. The
blossoms are a bright yellow and the vines
are q vivid green As soon as the blossom
appears fine branch forms on the vine
and shoots down into the ground. The
peas as the nuts are called on the DlaDta-
ton, form on the shoot beneath the ground
like potatoes. When The crop is gathered
In October the vine is ploIghed up, and
the nuts hang to the roots. Vines and all
are piled in cocks in the field, and in TWEEN
placed in bags and taken to the factories.
There they are cleansed of dirt, assorted,
polished in revolving cylinders and put in
to bags ready for the market"