The sun., 1900-12-17
The PEANUT FARMER
HOW HE GROWS AND tIARvEsTS HIS
TooTHSoME CROP.
We Rnise Nearly Five Million Bush
els In This Country Yearly, or
About One-fifth of the Worlds
Product--Uses of the Nut.

Most of the nuts grown in Virginia and
North Carolina are the COOLERS. The
goober is to the actual peanut what the
quahaug is to the genuine clam. The
shell usually contains but two kernels.
This is the nut with which the Italians
load their wagons and sell in paper bags
on the street corners. The real peanut
which answers to the Rhode Island clam
is smaller than the goober. The kernel is
about the size Of large pea, and it's fla
vor is sweeter than the other variety. 1t
is grown principally in North Carolina
and Tennessee. Occasionally a few get
into bag of COOLERS, but very seldom, as
they are shelled and sold for from 10
cents to 10 cents a 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 shelled nuts form the
seed, and about two bushels are required
for an acre. In a few weeks the plant
gets above the earth and begins to leaf
out. A field of peanuts looks much like
a field of clover, and during the war
many of the northern soldiers mistook
SloNct heiuS 1Of peuuuI putCueS Willie
hunting for something to vary their ra-
tions. The plants grow in rows, very
much like potato vines, and are cultivat-
ed in the same way. Weeds will soon
choke their growth, and the pickaninnies
on the farm are kept busy during the
summer in wedding out the patches with
their fingers. Nowadays the harvesting
is done by what is called plow, made es-
pecially for the purpose. 1t is drawn by
one mule and cuts the plants off close to
the roots. As soon as enough has accu-
mulated on the plow to form a stack it Is
thrown off and massed around short
pole stuck in the ground. The stack is
formed with the leaves outside, and the
vines are wound around it as tightly as
possible to protect the nuts from the
weather. The plan is somewhat similar
to that of binding wheat. About three
weeks exposure seasons" the nuts and
dries the vine, so that the pods are ready
to be picked.
The picking is the most expensive oper-
alton of all and takes the most time.
Whether in the barn or on the field, all
the work has to be done by hand. The
nuts are thrown into large baskets and
the vines made into large stacks or stored
away in the loft, for they make a hay
which is really more nourishing for the
average mule than timothy. The vine is
a little too rough for horses throat, but
it is a luxury to the average southern
mule, who will grow fat in peanut hay
and nothing else. In all fields some of
the vines will be blackened and nuts of
poor quality. These are left on the
ground, and later the pigs are turned into
the field. They eat everything that is
left except the roots. The nuts are not
very fattening, but they give the porker a
very sweet flavor. The famous hams
cured in some parts of Virginia owe most
of their quality to the fact that the pigs
have lived partly upon nuts before being
turned into smoked meat.
| In half a dozen towns most of the pea
nut factories" are located. The factory
/ is merely place where the nut is shelled
or the shell polished for the market. 1t is
curious fact that peanuts with clean,
glistening pods will sell for Is to 20 per
cent more at retail than those with large,
dirty looking pods, although the kernels
may be just as good, so the nuts intend
ed for the bag trade at the circus and on
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 was not taken of
the shells in the cylinders. The dark,
partly filled nuts are shelled by machin.
cry and sold to confectioners, while the
other ones are carried by a 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 twine, marked with the weight
and proper address and sent to the whole
sale peanut dealer. or late years a guam
tity of the bag peanuts has gone to
manufacturers of cheap coffee, to bt
roasted and mixed in with the coffee ber
ry and then ground, to be sold in pack
ages as choice Mocha and Maracaibo.
While most of the American nuts are
grown in eastern Virginia and Nortl
Carolina and Tennessee, peanut field.
are cultivated in parts of Louisiana ant
Nebraska. Many of the fields in Norti
Carolina contain apparently nothing but
wet sand. Digging down six or eigh
feet, however, the farmer generally
comes to loan which retains the rair
and other surface water. This nourishe!
the plant, which requires very light ant
porous soil. 1t also needs as hot wealth
er as corn to properly mature. Aftel
raising several crops the average peanu
field needs to be heavily fertilized witt
lime or mari, as the plant exhausts thu
soil.
During a fair year the American pea
nut crop will average nearly 5,000,00C
bushels, estimating % pounds to tn,
bushel. This is but a small proportion
of the worlds crop, however, which ag
gregates fully 550,000000 pounds. 1t i
calculated that we eat about $10,000,00'
worth of peanuts yearly, or 4,000,00'
bushels of the nuts, either in candy o
the original kernels. The shucks, o
shells, form also good food for pigs
while, as already stated, peanut vines ar
first class fodder for mules.
Very few peanuts are eaten out Of tn
pod in Europe, although fully 100000
900 pounds are sent to Great Britain an
the continent every year from Africa an
Asia. They are converted into oil and
sort of -four at factories at Marseille
and several English cities. A bushel O
the genuine peanuts shelled can be press
ed into about gallon of oil, which
substituted for olive and other table oil
very frequently. 1t sells at from
cents to 81 gallon, and the meal, o
-four, left after pressure is used for feed
Ing horses and baked into kind of brea
which has a large sale in Germany an
Frence.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Cure For Gossip.