Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-10
THE PEANUT HARVEST.
The GOOber In Now King in Certain
Parts of the south.

| THE PEANUT HARVEST.
The Goober In Now King in Certain
Parts of the South.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
| This Is peanut time in the south. Going
through eastern Virginia and North Caro-
| lima the traveller can see through the car
| window row after row of what appear to be
| round bushes. They are the stacks or
shocks of peanut vines hung around sticks,
waiting to be placed upon wagons AMI car
ried away for stripping. Some of the larger
| fields will contain 1000 of these stacks,
yielding from fifty to seventy-Ave bushels Of
nuts to the acre. Most of the nuts grown
In Virginia and North Carolina are the
| COOLERS. The goober is to the actual pea
nut what the quahaug Is to the genuine
clam The shell usually contains but two
Kernels This is the nut with which the
ltallans load their wagons and sell IN paper
| bags on the street corners. The real pea
| nut which answers to the Rhode Island
clam is smaller than the goober The kerr
| mel Is about the size Of a large pea and its
| flavor Is sweeter than the other variety. II
! Is grown principally in North Carolina and
tennessee. Occasionally a few get into a
| bag OF COOLERS. but very seldom as they
are shelled and sold from 10 cents to Is
cents peck more than the others They
| go Into candy paste and to the oil factories
| of Europe.
The peanut farmer begins planting as
| soon as the frost is out of the ground in the
| spring. The sheled nuts form the seed
and about two bushels are required for an
acre In few weeks the plant gets above
the earth and begins to leaf out. A field Of
peanuts looks very much like a field of
clover, and during the war many of the
northern soldiers mistook clover fields for
peanut patches. while hunting for some-
thing to vary their rations The plants
grow in rows. very much like potato vines,
and are cultivated in the same way Weeds
will soon choke their growth, and the pick
aninnes on the farm are kept busy during
the summer In wedding out the patches
with their fingers. Nowadays the harvest
Ing is done by what is called q pillow. made
especially for the purpose. II Is drawn by
one mule and cuts the plants off close to
the roots AS as enough has accumu-
lated on the pillow to form A sIack 1t ia
thrown off and massed around a short pole
stuck In the ground. The stack is formed
with the leaves outside, and the vines are
wound around 1t tightly as possible to
protect the nuts from the weather The
plan Is somewhat similar to that of binding
wheat. About three weeks exposure sea-
sons the nuts and dries the vine so that
the pods are ready to be picked. The pick
ing is the most expensive opera tiou of all,
and takes the most time. Whether in the
barn or on the field. all of the work has to
be done by hand. The nuts are thrown INTO
large baskets, and the vines are made INTO
large stacks or stored away in the loft, for
they make hay which is really more nour-
ishing for the average mule than timothy.
The vine is a little too rough for a horses
throat, but 1t IS luxury 20 the average
southern mule, who will grow fat on pea
nut hay and nothing else. In all fields
some of the vines will be biackened and the
nuts be OF a poor quality. These are left
on the ground, and later the pigs are turned
into the field. They eat everything ;hat is
left except the roots. The nuts are rot very
fatteninS, but they give the porlIer a very
sweet flavor The famous hams cured IN
some parts of Virginia ON most of their
quality to the fact that the p'gs have lived
partly upon nuts before being turned into
smoked meat. and have not been fed the
sour milk and garbage from the farmers
kitchen.
In half a dozen towns most of the peanut
factories" are located. The factory is
merely a place where the nut Is sheled or
the shells polished for the market. 1t Is a
curious fact that peanuts with clean, gllst-
enng pods will sell for Is to 20 per cent more
at retail than those with large. dlrty-look-
ing pods, although the kernels may be just
as good, so the nuts intended for the nag
trade at the circus and street corners
are secured in large iron cylinders. Then
they are carried to fans, which blow the
heavier nuts into one part Of the factory
and the little ones into another part, and at
the same time remove the dirt which
not taken off the shells in the cylinders.
The dark, partly filed nuts are shelled by
machinery and sold to cOnfectioners, while
the other ones are carried by sort of end
less chain apparatus into bags, each Of
which will hold about 100 pounds AS fast
as bag is filled it is sewed with English
Irvine, marked with the weight and proper
address and sent to the wholesale peanut
dealer who makes anywhere Il - to 81
per cent profit in dealing with the Italians
who his principal customers. OF late
years a quantity of the bag peanuts have
gone to manufacturers of cheap coffee. 70
be roasted and mixed in with the coffee
berry and then ground. to be sold in pack
ages as choice Mocha and Maricaibo.
While most of the American nuts are
grown in eastern Virginia and North Car
DINA and Tennessee the peanut fields are
beginning to be cultivated in parts Of
Louisiana and Nebraska. Many of the
fields in North Carolina contain apparently
nothing but wet sand. and the dark green
Of the leaves in contrast to the whiteness
OF the sand on sunny day Is very striking.
Digging down six or eight feet, however,
the farmer generally comes to liam which
retains the rain and other surface water.
This nourishes the plant. which requires
very light and porous soil. 1t also needs as
hot weather as corn to properly mature.
After raising several crops The average pea
nut fields need to be heavily fortified with
lime or mari. as the plant exhausts the soil
During a fair year the American peanut
crop will average nearly 500@m bushels.
estimating twenty-five pounds to the
bushel This is but a small proportion Of
the worlds crop however which asRre-
gates fully $50, 900 600 pounds 1t is calcu-
lated that we eat about s1OGn0OD worth Of
peanuts yearly, or 4.O0Ooo bushels OF the
nuts, either in candy or the original kernels;
The shucks or shells form also good food
for pigs while. already stated. peanut
vines are a first-class fodder for mules
Very few peanuts are eaten ont of the pod
in Europe, although fully 100000 go pounds
are sent to Great Britain and the continent
every year from Africa and Asa. They are
converted into oil and sort of t>ur ut fac
tories at Marseilles and several English
cities. A bushel of the genuine permits
shelled be pressed into abJut gallon
of oil, which is substituted for olive ard
other table oils very frequently. It sells for
from 60 cents to 81 a gallon. ani the meal
or flour left after pressure is used for feed
ing horses and baked into a kind CT bread
which has large sale in Germany and
France.