Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-07-20

ton is still king in the South. the pea
nut promises to dispute or to share its
dominion in some sections as part oil
well-balanced ironing practive. The
state of Texas for example, has plant
ed 100000 acres to peanuts, more than
doubling the acreage of last year, ac-
cording to figures just issued by the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture. The prospective crop, on the
same authority is more than 20 mil
lion bushels for the whole South. Tex
as already had the largest acreage in
1916, though in 1909 it stood sixth, with
most of the Atlantic and gulf coast
states ahead. Georgia jumped from
100000 acres last year to 100000 The
increase in Texas has been an index
OF the increase throughout the lower
South, though the proportionate in
crease elsewhere has not been so
great. For the South as whole, how
ever, it is remarkable that the acreage
has increased from less than million
ard a quarter acres to more than two
million acres.
Beating the Boil Weevil.
The boil weeyil drove many Texas
farmer to peanuts. From what seemed
to be a hopeless situation the peanut
has rescued him, and at the same time
rescued the oil-mill men who were on
the verge of a shutdown with their
supply of cotton seed diminished. The
department of Agriculture had long
been advocating change from the
single crop standard set by cotton. AS
long as cotton was the only money
crop the arguments fell on deaf ears,
but, backed up by the boil weevil, the
campaign began to bear fruit. The
farmers began to give part of the cot
ton acreage to peanuts. This pre-
sented a new problem and the oil-mill
men began to ask questions.
They found that many of the grow
ers were "hogging down" the peanuts.
that, is, they were turning the hogs in
10 the fields to harvest the nuts, and
were marketing the crop ION the hoof. y
The Department of Agriculture had
proved that a 40-bushel crop of Span
ish peanuts would produce more than
400 pounds of pork to the acre, and
supplied a good ration that needed only
a little topping off with the corn to
harden the meat. Furthermore, OF the
peanut hay is harvested before the
hogs are turned in, the hay alone al
most pays for the growing of the crop,
because it furnishes palatable food
to which all kinds of stock will turn
eagerly from any other kind of hav.
And if that were not enough, the pea
nuts, in common with other legumes,
bear nodules on their roots which
gather nitrogen from the air and put
it in the soil.
Helping the Oil Men.
Practically no peanut oil was made
in this country prior to 1915, and so
far the oil-mill men had not been ben
Gifted, but it was brought to their at
tenticn that the United States, in 1914,
was importing 1,332,108 gallons of pea
nut oil, and 44549,7S9 pounds of nuts.
More than half of the oil went to Chi
cago and presumably went into oleo-
margarine, and the lower grades into
soap. The oil brought more than cot
tonseed oil. A few changes in the oil
mills, having to do largely with the
cleaning of the peanuts. and they
were ready for the extraction, and the
peanuts began to come to them. Re-
Gently, there has been such a demand
for the nuts themselves, for manufac-
ture into products elsewhere, that the
mills have not been doing much eXtrac-
ton because they could make more
handling the nuts themselves than they
could by selling the extracted product
Bakers use immense quantities in
cakes and CONNECTIONS, and it is stated
that many chocolate cake is coated
with a mixture of which peanuts form
considerable part With imports cut
of by the war, prices are high and give
a present large impetus to growing
peanuts; and even at present prices for
cotton, peanuts are more profitable
where there is serious depredations by
the weevil.
The South has a great deal of sandy