Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-07-14
RAW PEANUT EATING HABIT.
Why Bath, N. Y, Sells More Unronste@
Peanuts Than Other Places
in the State.

1.-THE village of Bath" said whole
sale dealer in nuts, SELLS more raw or
unroasted peanuts than any other place
in the state. AS matter of fact, the
sale of raw peanuts is quite the feature
of the peanut trade in Bath, because
there are more people there who have
the raw peanut habit than there are In
any other place in the state. The rea-
son for it is that the state soldiers
home is located there. That is why
Baths peanut trade is unique IN the
quantity of raw peanuts 1t handles.
mo one likes raw peanuts until he ac-
uuires the habit, and then he wants
them just as regularly as he wants his
tobacco. Before the civil war the pea
nut was chiefly holiday luxury to the
great mass of people in this country.
The day when the circus was in town,
and the day when the county fair was
whooping it up in behalf of the honest
husbandman and the man with four
minute trotting horse, and when the
great and glorious Fourth of July had
come round again-and it came round
with bells on in those days-were about
the only occasions when the popular
yearning for peanuts was to any cx-
tent satisfied. On those memorable oc-
casions the nut was shucked and mas
ticated until every bucolic jaw was
lame. II was only in the towns and
large villages that the favored few
could have peanuts with them always.
Before the war there wasn't peanut
rooster in the whole country outside the
big towns, and the rural dealers bought
their stock of peanuts already roasted.
They were. delivered in big, coarse bags.
To-day every crossroads, from Maine to
California, has its peanut stand, and It's
wheeling steam rooster, and the great
American nut has no better OF more eX-
elusive standing on circus day or the
Fourth of July than it has on any or
binary day of the year, although there
is a greater concentration and appli-
cation of energy in its shocking and
chewing on those red-letter days.
"a large proportion of The soldiers
who went south with the union army
were from the rural districts. So, when
they got among the peanut patches Of
Virginia, North Carolina and Tennes-
see they were, metaphorically speak
ing, rightin clover. At first they roasted
at their camp fires the peanuts they
pulled from the patches, but 1t wasn't
long before they not only learned to
like them raw, but actually preferred
them that way. The result was that the
boys discovered after awhile that they
hankered after peanuts almost as much
as they did after tobacco, and they
brought the longing back home with
them after the war was over. What has
been the consequence? The demand
for peanuts increased so rapidly with
the return of peace that the crop then
grown did not begin to supplyit. Wide
awake farmers in Virginia, North Caro-
lima and Tennessee saw the point, and
their patches of peanut vines, which had
been not much more than an incidental
adjunct to the farm, expanded into
broad fields, and improved cultivation
and new methods in caring for and dis
posing of the crop took the place of The
old-time carelessness and crudities.
The peanut crop Of these three states
amounts to more than 100000 bushels
annually result due entirely to the
civil war and the contracting of the pea
nut habit of the soldiers. The bulk Of
this crop is handled, prepared and
shipped from Norfolk, the value of it
being not less than $8,OO0,OO0 year.
Naturally, the returned soldiers
loud call for peanuts soon brought
about situation that placed them with
in his reach and that of the rural popu-
lation to the furthest limits OF way
back, and the nut ceased forever to be
simply holiday luxury. The floor of
the backwoods grocery is now Uttered
nightly with shucks of peanuts, hot
from revolving rooster, thicker than
it ever was on any Fourth of July of