The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-03-25
The PEANUT AS
A Money CROP
Peanut oil Exported From France
Last Year Valued at $1,oo7, 1853;
Peanuts $371,56s.

The ravages of the cotton boil wee
vii has brought peanut culture into
consideration as an alternative where
that destructive pest has interferred
with the successful culture of cotton.
The original idea was, that as
means of starving the weevil out, pea
nuts might be raised for year or
two and something be made while
waiting until the enemy was routed.
The planters have found out, some
money in peanuts" Some are in
clined to think quite as much as cot
ton. AS a feed for cattle, hogs and
poultry, as a source of oil which has
many uses, and as a means of enrich
ing the soil with nitrogen, the value
of this crop is being better understood
and the prospects that it will be one
of the leading crops of the South in
the near future are good. Of its
merits and of the caution with which
| its culture should be gone into, the
Progressive Farmer, of Raleigh, N. c.,
in it's issue of March II, which is a
peanut number says editorially:
"The peanut is legume rich in nj
trogen, but gathers from the air
large part of this nitrogen. Our soils
J are generally deficient in NITROGEN
and it is the most expensive of the
| plant foods we buy by the millions of
dollars worth every year. The pea
nut furnishes good hay for catSe, and
may save us millions of dollars in
money now paid for roughage shipped
in from other sections. The peanut
is one of the best crops for producing
pork cheaply. We now pay millions
of dollars for pork which can be pro-
duced on peanuts for one-half what it
now costs. The peanut brings a
good price on the market because
the demand has always exceeded the
supply, and at rs cents to $1.00 a
| bushel, is a money crop equal to cot
ton at 10 to .12 cents a pound. The
|
made in four months, and is suitable
for use as a catch crop after oats and
wheat, in the part of the cotton belt
which is best suited to its growth
Let us grow the peanut, but let the
increase in acreage be sane and safe
or of slow growth so that we may
learn how to handle it to the best
advantage.
There were exported from Mar
settles, France, alone to the United
States, last year, 1881 barrels o
peanut oil, valued at $1,OO7,269; be
: sides peanuts to the value of $371
! 56S. If such is the demand that i
L calls for imports from one European
, port, from which, Of course, most o
5 it comes, Of such large amounts a
: these, there should certainly b.
Z money in the culture of this plant an
: in mills to express oil therefrom On
l. of the advantages in the culture @
the peanut is that it does not occup
the ground more than about a thir
of the year, leaving time for the Gu
}. tivation of other crops. Cotton re
quires practically all the year.
Whether we shall see a great slim,
:. lous given to peanut culture, with tn
}. result of too many going into it, r.
l. sulting in a discouraging fall in pri
n es, or whether some conservatives
1t will be shown with a cautious a,
.e vance into this new agricultural fiel
ID resulting in more and cheaper por
IS among other benefits next year wi
lie probably show. But the boil weev
ID has, at least, brought the attention
the southern farmer to the wisdom