The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1908-12-30
POWDER ON PEANUTS
Used to Make the Coolers Look
Clean and Pretty.
LONG AND CAREFUL TOILET,

Besides Being Powdered, the Nuts Are
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 a farm and is
ready to eat after it has been roasted.
A careless deduction would link up
then the grocer or Michelangelo.
That would he a mighty careless de-
duction. though. The first time a lot
of unroasted peanuts are encountered
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.
ume The peanut he grows is not fit
to put on a stand, at least not until it
has been touched up. Look at the pea
nuts on the next push cart and see
how ever 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 ii
YER 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 far. ner could
have done if he had spent the summer
trying. Then the brushed peanuts 60
on to another sort Of mill, and by
being tossed about they get their hulls
polished, and while that is being done
they are peppcred with tnlcum 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 rot ready for mar
ket yet. 1t is alongside q lot of larger
or smaller ones, hurting the appear
nnce of the larger ones, while it does
not enhance the value of the smaller
ones. To wen up matters the output
Of the talcum powder polishing ma
chine is run out on to Il 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.
ing out the biggest, that squad taking
the next largest, and so on down till
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 a time. cooked
to a nicely by experienced men, who
have thermometers and all sorts of
nut is done" This roasted product is
the one that the Italian buys, and
when he gets it he pops it into his lit
tie fake rooster and warns it over. II
takes a long time and a lot Of work
and hosts Of boys and girls to get the
nickel'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 a sack Of even run small,
sized peanuts will find a buyer quick
err than a sack of big and little ones
all mixed up together, The stomach
likes the eye to make a good report
and the peanut commission merchant
understands that a shining shell, with
indentations filled with talcum, pleases
the eyes, and he has no computations
about the powder box. because he has
found out that in roasting the heal
drives off the surplus talcum, so that
is why if one wants to find out fol
true about this trick Of the trade II
will be necessary to get hold Of an un'
roasted and not a roasted peanut.
By way Of good measure 1t might be
added that the shelled peanuts, gene-
ally sold sailed, have been run through
a thrashing machine, which breaks the
hull and blows it out Of the way. Only
Spanish shell" nuts can be so treated
The tougher hulls have to go to Signo!
lta!iano.-Kansas City Journal.