Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-11-12
POWDER ON PEANUTS
Used to Make the Coolers Look
Clean and Pretty.
LONG AND CAREFUL TOILET.

Besides Being Powdered, the Nuts Arc
Brushed and Polished and Sized Be-
fore They Are Roasted-Cooked at
the Mill by Experts.
There is not much to a peanut, to
look at it. 1t grows on farm and Is
ready to eat after 1t has been roasted.
A careless deduction would link up
the farmer. the commission merchant
then the grocer or Michelangelo.
That would be a mighty careless de-
duction. though. The first time a lot
rub one on a piece of dark cloth and
observe the white mark it leaves. That
is talcum powder. They powder pea
nuts to make them look pretty, which
is just why sister powders her face.
and in that particular peanuts and girls
are both alike.
Any farmer can grow peanuts, but
no farmer can sell them to the con-
sumer. The peanut he grows is not fit
to put on stand, at least not until it
has been touched up. Look Mt the pea
nuts on the next push cart and see
how even they run as to size. They
have all been sorted. Observe how
clean they are and how white this lot
is, how gray that lot is and how uni
form all the different lots are. They
have been sorted.
When the peanut IS grown it is gath
cred and carried to a miller, who puts
it in a great bin and later carries it
over to his mill, where he has a con-
trivance just chock full of brushes.
! These brushes get almost every fleck
of sand and dirt out of the peanuts,
which is more than the farmer could
have done if he had spent the summer
trying. Then the brushed peanuts go
on to another sort of mill, and by
being tossed about they get their hulls
polished, and while that is being done
they are peppered with talcum powder.
so that by the time they come out OF
this machine they are as white as they
are to appear in public.
But the peanut is not ready for mar
ket yet. 1t is alongside a lot of larger
or smaller ones, hurting the appear.
not enhance the value of the smaller
ones. To even up matters the output
of the talcum powder polishing ma
chine is run out on to a great canvas
| belt, which travels for fifty feet or
| more slowly. On either side of this
| belt are boys and girls. These sort the
peanuts as they pass; this squad pick
| hn
the next largest, and so on down till
J the smallest are left Shells that have
lodged the powder rag are thrown
| back into the mill, and broken bulls
are thrown away.
That is about all for the peanut now.
excepting the roasting. 1t has to be
roasted. There is a popular supersti-
/ ton that the Italian vender roasts the.
peanuts in his little push cart, All he
does is keep them hot They are roast
ed at the mill, tons at time, cooked
to nicely by experienced men. who
have thermometers and all sorts of
| appliances to show them when pea
nut is done" This roasted product is
the one that the Italian buys, and
| WQeH he gets II lie pops IL luIO HIS Ill-
! tie fake roaster and warns ii over 1t
takes a long time and lot of work
and hosts OF boys and girls to get the
! nicke's worth of hot roasted peanuts
! in the red and blue striped bag, but
there is a reason for it all, and the
| reason is that Il sack of even run small
sized peanuts will find a buyer quick
er than a sack of big and little ones
all mixed up together The stomach
| likes the eye TO make Il good report.
and the peanut commission merchant
understands that shining shell. with
! indentations filled with talcum, pleases
| the eyes, and he has no compunctions
about the powder box. because he has
| found out that in roasting the heat
drives off the surplus talcum, so that
Is why If one wants to find out for
true about this trick of the trade 1t
will be necessary to get hold of an I'M
roasted and not a roasted peanut
By way of good measure it might be
added that the shelled peanuts, gener-
ally sold salted. have been run through
thrashing machine, which breaks the
hull and blows it out of the way. Only
Spanish shell" nuts can be so treated.
The tougher bulls have to go to Signor
Italiano.- Kansas City Journal.