The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-15

nuts and more than two tons of hay on one acre of ground. She received a prize of $900 in cash and in addition sev- eral hundred dollars from the sale of her nuts and the hay. I have the record of a man who grew 2,GoO bushels on 125 acres and made a profit therefrom of over s5,0QO He sold his nuts at SIPS a bushel. He had In addition 50 tons of hay for which he got $15 a ton, and the hogs which he fattened on the vines and the roots brought him s135O.
 I am told that the crop is a cheap one to raise and that the hay alone will pay the cost of production, leav- ing the peanuts as clear profit. The industrial congress estimates the yield at from 20 to 40 bushels per acre and says that by good seed selection, GO bushels can be produced with small additional cost. The average yield IF east Texas last year was AZ bushels. This means a return In peanuts ana hay of $43 per acre.
 These figures show big profit. They show that the peanut era has come to stay and that the crop will eventually be raised side by side with cotton in every one of the 16 southern states.
 One of the most important things connected with peanuts Is that they can be grown upon millions Of acres that are now going to waste. They are especially fitted for the thin sandy cut over forest lands of the south. These lands are cheap and they can be clear ed and planted at small expense. The extent of the crop Is limited only by the supply of labor and seed. This is the statement of the department Of agriculture It's experts assert that the crop can easily be doubled without danger of over production or affecting any crop now raised. They say that the consumption of peanuts Is increasing so rapidly that over production is hardly a possibility. Moreover, pea nuts are not perishable and they can be kept, in ordinary storage, for Q long period of time.
 Another important factor in the in crease of peanut production Is the fact that the mills for crushing the nuts are already erected A large part of the machinery of the cotton seed oil factories can handle peanuts as easily as cotton seed in the making of oil and the mills can work on the two crops at different times of the year. All that they need is a little extra machinery for hauling the peanuts and fitting them for the presses AS it Is now, there are cotton seed oil mills every where in close proximity to the cotton plantations. There are so many mills that they can grind all the seed within four or five months after the cotton Is gathered. This necessitates the dis missal of their hands during the re- maining months and the mills and the investments have been idle during that time. Now the mills can be put to the grinding of peanuts as soon as the cot ton seed has been crushed and they will be kept busy all the year round.
 During my stay here I have visited one of the largest peanut oil mills of the south, It has a capacity of some thing like 2000000 bushels per season, and I am told that there are 10 other plants in Texas that can do quite as much. The origin of the peanut oil in dustry in this part of the United States started with this mill. It came about through the experiments of MT. D. s.