Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-04-08
PEANUTS.
Facts About a Great American Pro.
duct.

PEANUTS.
Facts About a Great American Pro-
duct.
More than 5000, 900 bushels Of home
grown peanuts are consumed annual
ly by Americans, involving more than
s14.000,000 in the industry, and Suf-
folk, Va, Is the centre for this. one Of
the largest enterprises in the world.
A remarkable fact in regard to this
Is that this great business had devel-
oped entirely since the trying days
Of the civil war;
The Union and Confederate troops
who campaigned through the peanut
section found that they could obtain
from the nuts a good meal for very
little foraging. Since then the "goober"
and "pinder," as the nut Is called in
the south, has grown in popularity and
sale until where once there were only
small patches there are now farms of
| fifty acres or more.
Virginia takes the lead in the in
dustry, having large plants at Norfolk,
Smithfield, Wakefield, Franklin, Wa
verify and Petersburg, but at none of
these places does the business equal
that Of Suffolk. The finest peanut
grown Is Of the bunch" variety. but
the Virginia running" is the most
widely known, the most popular with
the trade, and may be taken as the
typical American peanut.
Every year the peanut crop Is be-
coming more valuable, and while all
Americans are fond Of the nut. 1t Is
evident that the time Is coming when
its Utilization in manufacturing oil and
other products will make inroads on
the output for the palate. The Old
World Is now using millions Of BUSH
els annually for their oil. which Is re-
garded as equal to olive oil and Is
now sold as such. 1t Is also used as
lubricating Oil and sometimes takes the
place Of lard.
The Virginia nuts have large. white
pods, and in point Of flavor and size
are the finest raised, the selects from
these being known as the Jumbo
The white and red nuts Of Tennessee
are excellent, but are not so large as
the Virginia variety. North Carolina
produces the African variety. small
and full Of oil. but pleasant to the
taste. Authorities differ as to the nut
being a native Of Africa or Brazil
In Louisiana Is found the Spanish
variety, small but prolific, and large
quantities are grown.
| Peanuts will grow in any latitude
where Indian corn will thrive, but
good crop depends upon the climate
Where the land Is pulverized and made
porous and free from grass and weeds,
there Is little to be done In the way
Of cultivation after the seed is placed
| in the ground. Specially devised
ploughs are used for cultivating and
harvesting the crop.
| The picking Of the nuts furnishes
work for thousands of people, princi-
pally the negroes. The vines are
stocked or stored in barns after they
are ploughed from the ground. The
factories, which are really cleaners
and graders of the nuts, but the out
fit Of the planters. and after a treat
ment of cleaning and sorting, the nut
is ready for the consumer.
The factories are four-story build
ings and the machinery consists OF
fans, brushes polishers and separators'
The nuts are dumped into large hop
pers on the fourth floor. passing into
large cylinders on the next floor, where
they are cleaned by attrition, fans TAX
ing out the dust as they pass in and
around the cylinders. They then pass
to the second floor. where fans blow
out and separate the lightweight nuts,
and the others pass on to tables In
the form Of endless belts. From these
tables the hundreds Of women and
children pick out the discolored and
faulty nuts and allow the better ones
to pass on into grader, which grades
them as to size. The nuts then come
out as clean as a pearl and are placed
in chutes running to the floor, where
they are packed in burlap sacks and
are shipped.-Baltimore American.