The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-22
FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS OF
PEANUTS EATEN EVER TEAK
MANY USES TO NUT is PUT AS FOOD AND IN THE
MINISTRIES MILLIONS BUSHELS SHIPPED TO EUROPE

/ southwark. in the Mississippi Valley
as far north as southern Wisconsin,
and on the Pacific coast south to the
| Columbia river.
The Virginia Peanut.
In the Virginia peanut section, and
it is a very extensive one, 1t mas
been found that where the land is
properly prepared, pulverized and
made porous, and free from grass
and weeds, there is little to be done
in the way of cultivation after the
seed are placed in the ground. Most
planters have adopted the ridge or
drill" system, which renders Guilt
walton easy with plows made for the
purpose, and requiring very little use
for the hoe. 1t is always nip-and-
tuck race with Jack Frost to get
the crop harvested before he gets IN
his work, for a biting frost Injuries
the nut and lessons the value of the
vine for forage purposes. Peanut
farmers have plows made especially
for harvesting the crop. The plow
is long and keen and goes deep into
the soil, thus preventing bruising
and cutting of the nuts. AS the plow-
man loosens the vines from their
beds laborers with pitchforks follow
and remove the vines from the
earth. shake off the loose soil, and
pile the vines with their roots laden
with nuts in great piles. These
pitchfork workers are followed by
others in a few hours who take the
the nut-den vines and shock them
around seven-foot poles, care being
taken to keep the vines off the
ground by placing plank and wood
around the poles. When the shock
is finished it is capped with fodder
and hay to keep out the rain, and
then the shock is left undisturbed
until ready for the ''pickers," gen.
orally negro women and children who
are paid so much per bushel for pick
ing nuts from the vines. The pick
ing furnishes a great deal of work
for the colored people, and Santa
Claus and Christmas times money
for them come mainly from this
source. The picking of the nuts is
slow and tedious work and is one
of the largest items of expense to
the grower. Some peanut planters
do not shock their crop, but store
in barns and lofts and utilize rainy
days for picking. Other planters
have invested in peanut harvesting
machines, but the nuts gathered in
this way are not as marketable as
the hand-picked, the machinery
cracking and breaking the hulls. In
former days nearly all planters had
their nuts cleaned before sending to
market, but since the establishing
of the peanut factories the nuts are
brought in Just as they are taken
from the vines. The factories, which
are simply cleaners and graders, buy
the output of the planters as farm
ers' stock, and after a treatment of
cleaning, polishing and grading, or
sorting, by both hand and machin-
cry, the nut is ready for the consum-
err.
Machinery in Peanut Factory.
Owing to the construction of the
machinery it is necessary for the
factories to be fOur-story buildings,
but the machinery is neither costly
nor complicated, consisting Of fans,
brushes, polishers, sifters and sepa-
rators. AS the great loads of nuts
are brought to the factory the sacks
are carried by elevators to the top
or fourth floor, where the nuts are
dumped into hoppers, 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 From
this floor the nuts pass to the second
floor, where they go through fans.
which blow out and separate the
lightweights and the others pass on
to tables in the form of endless NOV
able belts, at which tables the hun
dreds of women and children PICK
out the discolored and faulty nuts
and allow the better ones to pass
into a grader, which grades the nuts
as to size. Through all this ma
chinery the nuts have been polished
until they come out looking as pol
ished pearls. In this condition they
are placed in chutes running to the
lower floor, where they are sacked
in burlap bags. which have been
stenciled with the names of the sew
eral brands, and they are then ready
to be shipped to the cities through
out the country.
The Peanut Market.
The larger portion of the output
is sold to jobbers and wholesale
houses in New York, Washington,
Boston, Chicago Kansas City, St.
Louis and other large cities, the peo-
pie of every state being addicted to
the peanut habit. From the jobber
and wholesaler the nuts go to the
street vender, the Italians disposing
of fully three-fourths of the third
grade nuts, they being considerably
cheaper than the first and second
grades, which go to the first-class
trade. The confectioners use large
shipments of the third grade in the
making of burnt almonds and the
cheaper grades of chocolates.
Every year the peanut crop is be-
coming more valuable. and while al
most all Americans are peanut fiends
/ it is evident that the time is coming
when great inroads will be made on