The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-11-02
PEANUT CROP HARVEST.
How the YielA 10 Handled ut Saf.
folk, Va.


Peanuts are harvested this month,
and Virginia IL the largest market In
the world for homegrown nuts. When
1T Is remembered that Americans con-
sumo annually more than six million
bushels Of peanuts grown I'm this and
other Southern States, at q cost OF
more than $4,000, 900, 1t Is not to be
wondered that q short crop has caused
the producers to demand q high price.
In suitable soil the peanut will grow
in any latitude where Indian corn
will thrive. but a good crop depends
entirely on the Characterization
which are found on the Atlantic sea-
board from New Jersey southwark, in
the Mississippi valley as far north as
Wisconsin and on the Pacific coast
south to the Columbia River. In the
Virginia peanut section-and 1t is
very extensive one-it has been found
that where the land is properly pre-
pared there is little to be done in the
way of cultivation after the seeds are
placed in the ground.
Annual Race With Jack Frost.
It is always a nip-and-tuck race
| with Jack Frost to get the crop har-
vested before he shows his work. for
biting frost Injuries the nut and les
sens the value Of the vines for forage
purposes. Ploughs are made for har-
vesting the crop. Tho plough is long
and keen and goes deep into the SOIL
nuts. AS the ploughman loosens the
vines from their beds laborers with
pitchforks follow him and remove the
vines from the earth, shake on the
loose soil and pile the vines with their
roots laden with nuts in great piles.
These workers are followed by 9TH
ers, who take the nut-laden vines and
When the shock is finished 1t is capped
| to keep out the rain, and the shock Is
left undisturbed until ready for the
pickers, who are generally women and
children, and are paid SO much per
| bushel. The picking Of the nuts Is
slow and tedious work and one or the
| largest items Of expense to the grow
| err. Some planters have invested In
| thrashing machines, but nuts picked
| this way are not as marketable as the
| hand-picked, the machine cracking
and breaking the hulls.
Nuts Brought i'm as Gathered.
| In former years most planters had
| the nuts cleaned before sending to
| market, but since the establishing of
peanut factories the nuts are brought
in just as they are picked from the
| vines. The factories, which are in
| fact recleaners and graders, buy the
| output of the planters as farmers
| stock, and after a treatment of clean
ing, polishing and sorting by both
hand and machinery, the nut is ready
| for the consumer.
The factories are four-story build
| fngs, but the machinery is neither
costly nor complicated, consisting of
! fans, brushes, polishers, sifters and
| separators. AS the great loads of nuts
are brought to the factory they are
sacked and carried to the top floor by
| elevators, where the nuts are dumped
into large hoppers. Then they pass
| into large cylinders on the next floor,
where they are cleaned by attrition,
fans taking out the dust as they pa.
around the cylinders. From this fioe
| the nuts pass to the second floor, wher
they go through fans which blow OF
and separate the light-weights, and tn
others pass on to tables on endle.
| movable belts.
Work for Hundred.
At these tables the hundreds of ne
gro women and children pick out tn
| discolOred and faulty nuts and allo'
| the better ones to pass on into a grad
er, which grades the nuts az to siz
Through all this machinery the nu
have been polished until they come o,
looking as clean and polished as
pearl. In this condition they are place
in chutes running to the lower foo
/ where they are sacked in burlap baf
which have been stencilled with tt
names Of the several brands, and al
ready to be shipped to the citi,
throughout the country.