Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-01
PEANUT TIME
Where the Goober is King-A Most
Important Industry.

This is peanut time in the south. Going
through eastern v 'ginia and North
Carolina the traveller can see through
the car window row after row of what
arnear to be round bushes. They are the
stacks or shocks of peanut vines hung
around sticks waiting to be placed upol
wagons and carried away for stripping.
Some of the larger fields will contain
Leo of these stacks, yielding from fifty
to seVcnty-tiVe bushels OF nuts to the
acre. Most of the nuts grown in Virginia
and North Carolina are the COOLERS. The
gooher 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 agons and sell in paper bags
on the street corners. The real peanut
which answers to the Rhode Island clam
is smaller than the gooher The kernel
is about he size of a large pea and its
flavor is sweeter than the other variety.
1t is grown principally in North Carolina
and Tennessee. Occasionally q few get
into a bag of COOLERS. out very seldom.
as they are shelied and sold from 10c 30
15c a peck more than the others. They
go into candy paste and to the oil fac
tories 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 plants
gets above the earth. and begin to leaf
out. A field of peanuts look very much
like a field of clover. and during the war
many of the northern soldiers mistoo!l
clover fields for peanut patches, while
looking for something to vary their ra-
tons. The plants grow in rows, very
much like potato vines, and are Guilt
waited in the same way. Weeds Will soon
choke their growth, and the ~piekaninnies
Oh the farm are kept busy during the
summer in wedding out the patches with
their fingers. Nowadays the harvesting
is lone by a pillow, made especially for
the purpose. 1t is drawn by one mule
and cuts the plants off close to the roots.
AS soon as nough has accumulated on
the pillow to form a stack it is 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 it as tight as possible, to
protect the nuts from the weather. The
plan is somewhat similar to that of bind
Ing wheat. About three weeks exposure
seasons the nuts and dries the vine, 50
that the pods are ready to be picked. The
picking is the most expensive operation
of all, and takes most time. Whether in
the Darn or on the field all of 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 a horses throat, but it is
., ,-ij, TO tho n yara ta Cnlthap1 n
who will grow fat on peanut hay, and
nothing else. In all fields some of the
vines will be blackened and the nuts be
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 favor. 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, and
have not been fed the sour milk and
garbage from the farmers kitchen.
In half-a-doZen towns most of the pea
nut Factories are located. The factory
is merely a place where the nut is shelled
OF the shell polished for the market. 1t is
a curious fact that peanuts with clean,
glistening pods will sell for Is to 20 per
cent more at retail thar those with large.
dirty-lOoking pods, although the kerr
nels may be just as good, so the nuts in
tended for the bag trade at the circus
and IN street corners are secured in
large iron cylinders. Then they are car
ried to fans, which blow the heavier nuts
into one part of the factory and the lit
tie ones into another part and at the
same time remove the dirt which was
not taken off the shells in the cylinders
The dark, partly filled nuts are shelled
by machinery and sold to confectioners
while the other ones are carried by q
sort of endless chain apparatus into bags
each of which will hold about 100 pounds
AS fast as a bag is filled it is seWed with
English Irvine. marked with the weight
and proper address, and sent to the
| wholesale peanut dealer, makes any.
where from % to so per cent profit il
, dealing with the Italians, who are his
4 principal customers. OF late years ;
2 quantity of the bag peanuts have gone
i to manufacture of cheap coffee, to b.