The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13
reach the ear.

reach the ear.
 The bags, when filled. are loaded on wagons and carried to the factory to be weighed, cleaned and sorted. They weigh from 90 to 105 pounds, and nuts in this condition are worth from 1-2 to cents a pound For weeks after the picking season begins, a constant procession of wagons piled high with bags of peanuts may be seen on every road leading to Smithheld. Arrived at the factory, a four-story structure on the river bank, the bags are taken and dumped into huge hoppers. They are first passed through electric fans which blow out the leaves, dust, and smallest nuts. Thence they go Into cylinders where they are cleasned and polished by friction with brushes, and are then put on elevators to the fourth floor and passed on to a second fan that takes out the light nuts still remain ing. Reaching the second floor. the nuts fall on moving table in the form of ap endless belt. where the light and dark nuts are separated by hand. the women who do this work standing on either side of the long tables and watching the nuts intently as they sort them. This is the most cheerful room in the factory, for the women are encouraged to sing at their work. They earn from 40 to 50 cents a day, the men who do the heavier work receiving from 75 cents to SIPS. From 250 to 800 hands are employed in this fac tory during the season. The nuts are carried from the revolving tables through screens that grade them according to size. the different grades passing into branded bag ready for market The best brand prepared here Is the 'Bon-Ton," very large, white, attractive looking nuts. These sell at wholesale from 1 to 1 1-2 cents per pound more than fancy, hand picked brands-Shields and Suns-the price this season ranging from 1-2 cents In December to 1-2 cents in September, the supply not being equal to the de- mand. The largest orders are received for the Sun, Shield, and Diamond C.. brands which average from to 8 1-2 cents per pound. Most dealers, however, have their private brand for whatever grade they buy. Small cars are kept running from the factory to the boat that carries the nuts to Norfolk
 It is not the nut alone, however, that has commercial value. for the shells usually considered a waste product, are shipped in largo quantities from the Smithfield factory to Germany where, mixed with molasses and other sub stances. they are made into food for cattle known as peanut meal" A by product of peanut-oiI manufacture. called peanut cake Is also used for this pur- pose, and during the war. when there were at least four oil mills in the South ern States, 1t was eaten by many people living in the vicinity of the mills and was declared to be both palatable and nutri- tious. The extraction of oil from this nut is not at present an established in dustry in this country. both because too small quantities are produced to keep the mills at work and because they are not being raised at a low enough price to compete with other oil seeds. Peanut butter, however. is manufactured in con- siderable quantities and of the nuts them selves the American people consume 4'- GOO 900 bushels yearly.
 Mir. Gwaltney. the owner of the large factory plant in Smithheld. made his first venture in peanuts soon after the war by buying them in small quantities from farmers and shipping them in the rough condition to northern ma k ts; afterwards he cleaned them as well as he could by hand power, using an ordinary grain ran and roller In spite of various losses the business grew rapidly and in 1880 he stoSted a grading and cleaning factory Today the Gwaltney-Bunkley Peanut Company has the largest factories in the world and sells goods not only in all the principal towns of the United States and Canada, but in England, Holland Ger many. South Africa. Cuba and Porto Rico.