The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-19

Is yet simple. Light. rich soil. free from grass. is best suited to their growth. Af- ter the land has been thoroughly fallowed 1t Is "dsted'-that is. plowed into rows or beds three feet apart-and the nuts are planted on these rioges from to 15 inches distant in the row. according to the strength of the soil. The work of planting by hand Is slowly done. and has given way to the peanut planter. which Is now used by all farmers who cultivate this product extensively. The seeds are shelled by hand. and the slightest break ing of the skin on the nut will prevent its sprouting A pea poppin' in early spring, preparatory to planting, is 8 fes- tivlty among farmers in certain districts only second to the old-time "corn-shuck- in'. bushel and a fourth to a bushel and" half. yielding from twelve to four teen quarts of kernels. are. required to is twenty bushels. With fertile soil and favorable seasons, however. an acre often yields fifty to sixty bushels.
 As soon as the seed begins to push its way through the soil the farmer begins to blow to keep down the grass. which. next to wet weather, is the greatest en- emy to peanuts.
 When the. farmer stops working his peanuts he has been over the land three or four times with blows, and at least once with hoe. if there was much grass, When the growth is complete. about the last of September or the first of Octo- ockb thC NihCS arc plOWC0 uP htlu SIldhcH and with the nuts clinging to them are piled in little shocks to cure.
 It Is usually through the commission merchants who have Carried the far cleaners and the shellers. The cleaners remove all dirt and polish the hulls, after which the peanuts are run on end- less belt tables and assorted. The best second grade as extras" and the third grade is shelled. The first grades of the Virginias are nearly all shipped In the hull, but the Spanish peas are all shelled before being shipped.
 The smelling process Is simple. The hulls are removed and the kernels are divided into grades. usually two, the first grade being the whole nut and the The manufactured products. both shelled and unshelled. then go to large. peanut jobbers and confectioners It Is said that two-thirds of the estimated seven mill lion bushels of peanuts produced annu- ally are used by confectioners. Fruit candles of various kinds are made from them. For instance. Albert extract used with peanuts makes tons of Albert candy.
 The peanut contains food properties vegetable. The food value of an ounce of peanuts Is three times that of any ounce of beef. Sanitartums consume annually thousands of bushels of peanuts in mak- ing diet for their patients. Peanuts con- tain about 30 per cent. oil. which Is equal to the finest olive oil. Of thousands of bushels shipped each year to Marseilles most of them come back to America in the form of fine olive oil. There is at present no manufactory in this country for extracting oil from peanuts, but one Is now being built at Petersburg, Va., by Northern capitalists.
 Of the nuts that go to Europe many are used in Spain in the manufacture of fine soaps and chocolates. Even the hulls, heretofore cast to swine. are now being utilized and manufactured into an adul- terated oil
 Jealousy among shelters precludes an accurate knowledge of the crop yield, but a conservative estimate places the entire annual yield at seven million bushels, five and one-half millions of which are Virginia peas, raised in about sixteen counties in Southeastern Virginia, and Northeastern North Carolina. Spanish peanuts, the annual yield of which is about a million and a half bushels, are exception of those raised In four or five counties in North Carolina on the Vir- glnia border.
 Petersburg. Va. is the Spanish peanut cluding both Virginia and Spanish, are shipped from this city than from any other. Norfolk. Va. Is known as the Virginia peanut market of the world.
 The entire yield of peanuts in the United States outside of Virginia and North Carolina will not exceed half a million bushels. Of the sixteen peanut factories in Virginia and North Caro- lima for smelling peanuts five are in Pe- tersburg. There are in these States nu- merous factories for cleaning and assort- ing.
 The prices thirty years ago were as high as $1.75 per bushel. but there has been a gradual decline till now the prices fluctuate between 50 cents and $l The highest price obtained this season for Spanish peanuts. which usually sell for about 15 cents more than Virginia, has been 75 cents per bushel.
 There is annually employed about sl5,- 900 900 In lraising. marketing and manu- featuring peanuts. There is no crop so damaging to the fertility of land as pea nuts, and the poor land in Southeastern Virginia Is due largely to the raising of this product