Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1911-12-01
Picking Time q Jubilee.

AFTER two or three weeks, &C
cording to the weather, comes tn
real picking time. Up to few year
ago this was all done by hand, ant
1t was jubilee time for the negroes
"The shocks were loaded on farr
cart and carried to convenient spot
where they were arranged in a bi
circle high enough to make a goo
break for the cool winds, for we of
ten get some right cool weather il
October, then fire was built in TIL
middle and round the fire clusters
. the pickers, each with bushel bas
ket or a big bag, perhaps twenty
five old men and maidens, youns
men and maidens, young men ant
children of all ages from a four
year-old fodder to four-score-olo
nanny with her pipe, sitting there
from early morning till dark, sing
ing, telling stories and picking the
nuts from the vines for wage of l0
cents a bushel.
Rapid pickers can pick from
eight to ten bushels a day, but five
or six bushels would be an average
days work, The vines are thrown
to one side to be used as fodder, and
i; makes an excellent change in the
ratons for the farm cattle.
But the days of hand picking are
rapidly passing, and the noise of the
machine picker is heard in the land
The machine picker does its work
much mere rapidly, but it is not quite
so discriminating as the hand picker.
and machine picked nuts bring a
fraction of a cent less pound in
the market.
Threshing the Peanuts.
| ''The vines are fed into hopper
through an ingenious arrangement o.
metal fingers the peanuts pour gu
1 in continuous stream into the bif
bags which are placed at the othe7
end OF the machine. The vines ars
thrown out on the other side, bu
small bits of vines will OCCASIONAL,
go out through the peanut chute, ne
cessitating caretaker as the bag
are filled, for the buyer pays FOL
weight in nuts and not broken twigs
from the vines.
AS fast as the bag is filled, ant
they contain about 100 pounds each
they are sewed at the top and ar,
ready for the market, or rather TO
the peanut factory, for the farmers
do not usually sell directly to tn.
consumer.
"These factories are large build
ilgs which are not unlike grain ele
waters in appearance. In them thu
nuts are cleaned and sorted accord
ing to size and appearance of thu
shells.
"The peanut crop is the none!
crop of the Virginia farmer. HI
Ills wagons Will DIS ilCHy boof
as possible and drives to the near
est factory.
when the crop is light there i
often lively bidding between the diff
ferent buyers. Prices are raised ;
fraction Of a cent pound and Otter
a sale is clinched by the offer of few
cents more for the bag.
Last summer prices ranged from
4 to 1-2 cents pound With
very heavy crop the prices may drol
below 4 cents, but there is no prof
for the farmer in that case. Thi
year, owing to the long continue,
drouth, it is expected that highe
prices will prevail. Many of thu
nuts this year have been blasted
The shell forms as usual, but Their
Is no meat inside.
81 have forgotten to tell you on,
very important thing connected will
peanut culture, and that is that whel
the nuts are all picked and bagge,
and the fodder housed we turn loos
our hogs in the field and they fattel
ON the nuts which escaped the plog
In digging and those which ar
shaken from the vines in shocking
and that is why Virginia ham ha
a worldwide reputation. Peanut fe'
ham is the hest ever
i "Now, Miss Boston, you know a
much about peanuts as you do abou
beans"