Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-15
THE PEANUT AND ITS USES.
Marseilles, Strange to Say. the Gen.
trail Market of the World.

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From the Philadelphia Manufacturer
Americans have come to look upon the
peanut chiefly as an article of food, asso-
ciating it with circuses, country fairs and
tho BQwery. It's employment for food pur-
poses is, however, one of the least impor-
tant of its uses. Although Europeans sell
dom eat the nuts, Marseilles is the peanut
center of the world. In 1899 that city i'm
ported 61,241 tons of unshelled and 9.579
tons of shelled peanuts and that was not
an unusual year. Bordeaux also uses large
quantities every year, but the flrst-named
city stands in Europe at the head OF the
production of vegetable oils from oleagin-
Gus seeds. The chief sources of the city s
peanut supply are Bombay, Mozambique
and Senegal although large quantities are
received from other places.
In the Marseilles crushing mills for hand
ling peanuts the shells are broken by means
Of toothed rollers, and the kernels separa-
ted by a system Of winnowing machines
such as are used in flour mills. The inside
red skin is then removed by revolving
sleeves and air blasts, and the kernels are
ground, after which they are ready to be
pressed. The pressing takes place in the
same manner in which other oleaginous
seeds are pressed, the meal being envel-
oped in strong fibrous mats and subjected
to hydraulic pressure The resulting CAKE
is then reground, the oil remaining IN the
meal secured as in the first instance. The
third extraction.
This oil. after being clarified by filtration
and the admixture of fuller'S earth, Is put
on the market, and used as an flluminant,
and more extensively as an adulterant in
olive oil, in which latter field it's chief COM
petitor is cottonseed oil.
The cake left is sometimes chemically
treated to secure the oil that may have es-
capped the presses, but whether thus treated
or not, it is valuable as food for cattle.
The husks are sometimes used for fuel, and
they have some value as fodder, although
goats are about the only animals that will
eat them when not mixed with the peanut
cake.
In the United States the raising of these
nuts is not extensively engaged In, except
in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina,
although a good many are grown in all the
middle southern states. The crop for the
entire country in 1899 was about 100000
bushels of twenty-five pounds each. which
was an increase of about LOCO, 600 bushels
over the crop OF 1898.
There are some twenty plants for grind
ing peanuts in the United States, these be-
ing chiefly situated in the states where the
single factory in Tennessee which handles
five tons of peanuts daily. The output Sc
cured at this rate of consumption includes
OBS gallons of refined oil, which sells at 81
per gallon; IT'S gallons of crude oil at 90
cents, $3.50 pounds of flour and meal at 3
cents, and $500 pounds of stock feed at go
cents per 100 pounds, making tho gross.fe
ceipts about s415.oo per day, aid at this
rate the annual profit is said to average
$19,725. These figures may be open to some
amendments and moderations. but there
seems to be no doubt that many of these
plants are yielding a large return for the
small amount Of capital invested.