The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-05-26
A LARGE PEANUT CROP.

A LARGE PEANUT CROP.
Many Uses to Which Product Is Put-Latesi
Is Butter.
The peanut crop of 1899 is nearly
100000 bushels heavier than the
crop Of 1898, and prices are CORE
spondingly lower. Last year prices
reached as high as 6 cents a pound
for shelled nuts. They are now sell
ing at cents. Tennessee experts
think the total yield in sight this sea.
son will reach nearly 4,5OC, 900 bushels
or twenty-one pounds each. The bulk
OF the crop is produced in Tennessee
| Virginia and North Carolina. The
American yield constitutes but a small
proportion Of the peanut crop of the
world. as the expectation from Africa
and India to Europe is nearly 100000
900 pounds annually, half of which
goes to Marseilles, to be made into oil.
The running variety Is the typical
American peanut. Its vines are large,
with spreading branches, growing fiat
on the ground and bearing pods over
their entire length. The pods are large
and white. There are many other vari-
cites grown, some of them being up
right bushes instead of vines. On the
markets are what are known as Span
ish nuts used principally by confec-
TONERS. They first came from Spain,
but werv transplanted into Tennessee
and Virginia, where they thrived and
now are grown in large quantities.
They have small, round kernels and
are very fine. The total crop in this
country Of this variety averages 15O,.
600 bags of 40 pounds per bag.
1t is only within the last twenty
years that peanuts have been shelled
by machinery. With the increase in
their production machines had to take
the place of the old slow going meth
DDS, and experience has taught that
the consumption has always kept
pace with the increased supplies made
available by improved machinery. A
great impetus was given to the busi-
ness decade ago when many farmers
Of the cotton belt determined to stop
growing cotton and raise vegetables.
Peanuts found early favor with these
growers and now vast quantities are
annually harvested in the middle
,knfn A
with not too much lime, is necessary,
and under such conditions the yield
runs from thirty to forty bushels per
acre.
There are about twenty peanut fac
tories in America. They are located
principally in the peanut-growing sec
tions. The capital required for start
ing a mill is comparatively small,
which is one of the reasons that make
it impossible to form trust. There
is factory at Waverly, Tenn, which
handles five tons of peanuts daily. The
daily receipts from this mill are 235
gallons Of refined oil, which sells for
81 per gallon; It's gallons Of crude oil,
at 50 cents; $3.50 pounds of -four and
meal, at cents, and $500 pounds Of
stock feed, at 60 cents per 100 pounds,
making the total gross receipts Sl15.9O
per day, which averages an annual
profit of $19,725.
An extensive grower does not take
the trouble to separate his peanuts
e.a,~ v;coe opd d;v< u,hon bo hoo duo
his crop, but sends everything to the
factory. There they are put in mill,
vines, dirt and all. They are placed
in hopper and fed into a revolving
cylinder, which cleans them by fric-
ton, sending the dirt, leaves and vines
out by suction pipe. The nuts re-
main in a cylinder and they are fed
out upon a revolving "slat table, the
Stats resting upon canvas, from which
negro women pick out those of the
first grade, know as fancy" The
selected nuts are fed from the table
into chutes and thence into bags and
labeled fancy hand-picked." The re-
mainder are run over second revolv-
ing slat table, fed into chutes and
packed in bags branded "extras."
Four grades are sorted, the first three
being sold to venders and the fourth
sold to confectioners for making
burnt almonds and cheap candles.
The $1O,OO0,OOO worth Of peanuts
America uses are not counted in the
staple food, but are eaten at all inter-
walls as luxury. This country last
year imported small quantity Of pea
nuts from South Africa. But on the
other hand America does a heavy ex-
porting business to Europe, Mexico
and other countries. Foreigners do
not eat them as Americans do, but
grind them into meal.-Chicago Rec
ord.