The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-04-08
PEANUTS.
Facts About a Great American Pro.
duct.


More than 100000 bushels OF
homegrown peanuts are consumed
annually by Americans. involving
more than S14ooo.ooo in the industry
and Suffolk. Va, is the center for this
one of the largest enterprises of the
world. a remarkable fact in regard
to this is that this great business has
developed entirely since the trying
days of the Civil war.
The Union and Confederate troops
who campaigned through the peanut
sections found that they could OBJ
tain from the nuts good meal for a
very little foraging. Since then the
''goober" and ''pinder," as the nut is
called in the south, has grown in pop
ularity 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 Nor
folk, Snithheld, Wakefield, Franklin,
Waverly and Petersburg, but at none
Off these places does the business
equal that OF Suffolk. The finest pea
nut 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, it 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 bushels
annually for their oil, which is re-
garded as equal to olive oil and is now
sold as such. 1t is also used as lubri-
eating oil and sometimes takes the
place of lard.
The Virginia nuts have large, white
pods. and in point OF favor 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 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 de-
vised ploughs are used for cultivating
and harvesting the crop.
The picking OF the nuts furnishes
work for thousands of people, prin-
cipally 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 are the outfit
of the planters, and, after a treatment
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 separa-
tors. The nuts are dumped into large
hoppers on the fourth floor, passing
into large cylinders on the next floor,
where they are cleaned by attrition,
fans taking out the dust as they pass
in and around the cylinders. Then
they pass to the second floor, where
fans blow out and separate the light
weight 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 dis
colorcd and faulty nuts and allow the
better ones to pass on into the grader,
which grades them as to size. The
nuts then come out as clean as pearl
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