Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1900-04-27
A LARGE PEANUT CROP.
Many Uses to Which Product is Put-Latest
Is Batter.

Is Batter.
The peanut crop of 1890 is nearly
100000 bushels heavier than the
crop Of 1893, and prices are corre-
spondingly lower. Last year prices
reached as high as cents pound
Tor shelled nuts. They are now sell
ing at cents. Tennessee experts
think the total yield in sight this sea-
son VIII reach nearly 100000 bushels
OF 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
200 pounds annually, half Of which
goes to Marseilles, to be made into oil.
The running variety is the typical
American peanut. Its Zines 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 were 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 110 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
great impetus was given to the DUST
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
southern states. A calcareous soil,
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 mill is comparatively small,
which is one of the reasons that make
1t impossible to form a trust. There
is a 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; 175 gallons Of crude oil,
at so cents; $3.50 pounds Of flour and
meal. at cents, and $500 pounds Of
stock feed, at GO cents per 100 pounds,
making the total gross receipts Sf15.9O
per day, which averages an annual
profit of $19,725.
An extensive grower does not take
the trouble to separate his peanuts
from vines and dirt when he has dug
his crop, but sends everything to the
factory. There they are put in mill
vines. dirt and all. They are placed
in a hopper and fed into revolving
cylinder, which cleans them by frfc
tion. sending the dirt, leaves and vine:
out by suction pipe. The nuts re
main in a cylinder and they are fec
out upon revolving ''slat table," thu
Stats resting upon canvas, from whicl
negro women pick out those OF tn
first grade, know as "fancy." Tn
selected nuts are fed from the tabl
into clmtes and thence into bags ant
, labeled fancy hand-picked." The re
mainder are run over second revolv
ing slat table, fed into chutes an
packed in bags branded extras.
Four grades are sorted, the first thre
being sold to venders and the fourt
sold to confectioners for maxim
burnt almonds and cheap candles.
The $1O,O00,OO0 worth Of peanut
America uses are not counted in tn
staple food, but are eaten at all intel
walls as a luxury. This country las
year imported small quantity of pes
! nuts from South Africa. But on tn
> other hand America does a heavy e1
= porting business to Europe, Mexic
4 and other countries. Foreigners d
8 not eat them as Americans do, bu
$ grind them into meal.-Chicago Re'
o ord.
J. "