The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-04-12
Plant Peanuts as Part of a Rotation.

Messrs. Editors: The safe and
sane development Of the peanut crop
In the boil weevil section of the South
will mean millions Of dollars to the
Southern farmers. The only cloud
on the otherwise clear sky is that the
farmers will override a good thing and
come to grief The peanut as a crop.
will pay best when used as an ad-
junct to the standard staple crops.
With the development of live stock
Of all kinds In the South, peanuts will
play a large part as a profitable for
age crop; and at present prices, they
are good cash crop, especially on
the poorer upland soils and the thin
sandy soils Of the river bottoms.
In the scope Of such an article. it
would he impossible to go into de-
tailed discussion of the various
methods used in handling the peanut
crop from the preparation of the soil
up to and including the harvesting
and marketing Of the product. In
ment Of Agriculture has issued a new
and revised bulletin on peanuts writ
ten by Mr.. w. r. Beattle, Of the Di-
vision Of Horticulture which covers
every phase of the subject. Mr. Beat
tie Is a recognized authority on the
practical growing and handling Of
peanuts; and any one contemplating
peanut growing should have this bull
letin.
The cheapest and best way to grow
peanuts Is as a follow crop, be-
hind oats. wheat. early potatoes, or
some purely winter cover crop. 1t is
possible that in very dry summer
this might cut down the yield slight
ly, but the advantage Of cheap pro-
duction and the raising Of two crops
In one year on the some land would
more than counterbalance the de-
creased yield. In this article, / refer
entirely to the growing Of the Span
ish variety Of peanuts.
Where the peanuts are not used as
follow" crop, avoid too early
planting. The earlier the plant
ing. the greater Is the cost of
production. Grass and weeds are
particularly harmful to the crop: and
after the field becomes grassy the
hoeing Is costly, as well as damaging
to the plants. Prepare the land for
the crop early, and then keep it clean
and in good filth by the use of the
section harrow until planting time.
This is very cheap cultivation and
very effective. By this means. we
XIII successive crops Of grass and
weeds before the peanuts are planted.
This makes the cultivation Of the
crop proper, very easy and inexpen-
sive. On the whole. few Southern
farmers do enough before planting"
cultivation in the raising Of any of
their clean cultured crops.
Too many acres, or over-cropping.
in peanuts means disaster to the in
dividual farmer, just as surely as the
over-cropping in cotton did under the
all-cotton system. AS q balanced ra
tion Is essential to successful live
stock feeding. so is proper balanc-
ing of our crops on the farm neces-
sary to successful farming. The pea
nut fills long felt want on the farms
OF the South, especially to the small
farmer Of the uplands. 1t fits well
into any system af rotation. 1t can
be used for a cash crop by harvest
ing, or 1t can be used as a forage
crop for hogs and pastured. 1t is
destined to become Of much econom
ic importance following in the wake
of the boil weevil Observation-Disclosures
sive Farmer.