The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1917-08-09

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in the oil mills, having to do large.
ly with the cleaning of the peanuts
and they were ready for the extrac-
ton. and the peanuts began to come
to them. Recently there has been
such demand for the nuts them
selves for manufacture into pro-
ducts elsewhere. that the mills have
not been doing much extraction,
because they could make more
by handling the nuts themselves
than they could by selling the en-
tracted product. "A single manu-
facture of peanut butter, for en-
ample, uses more than 200 carloads
of shelled nuts year and expects
soon to go to 500 carloads.
Bakers use immense quantities
I, in cakes and confections, and it is
stated that many a chocolate cake
is coated with mixture of which
peanuts form Il considerable part.
With imports cut off by the war.
prices are high and give a present
large impetus to growing peanuts,
and even at present prices for cot
ton peanuts are more profitable
where there is serious depreciation
by the weevil.
The South has a great deal Of
sandy soil. and in many sections
corn succumbs to the dry weather
just at the time when it most needs
moisture. Such soils in such sec
tons furnish just the right con-
ditions for peanuts, which require
less rain than corn. IF the pea
nut could choose it's own bed. i,
would pick these sandy lands as
just the right place.
furthermore. the peanut improve
these lands, if proper methods are
maintained. Of course, if the pea
vines are removed for hay and the
roots are wholly dug out in harvest
ing the crop, they will exhaust the
soil just as any other crop will
where everything is taken away
and nothing is returned. 1t is u
fortunate circumstance, however,
that the nuts themselves grow just
below the surface of the ground,
while the Notwithstanding roots 60
considerably deeper. A pillow dig
ger which will 60 just below the
nuts and cut the roots off at that
point leaves the nitrogen-bearins
part in the soil, and the same IS
true of a modified potato digger al.
so used in harvesting the crop.
Even if a good many nuts are lots
by cutting them off too close, the
nitrogen left in the soil by saving
the roots is said to be worth from
$500 to 500 an acre, and it would
take a good many peanuts to make
up this value. If hogs are turned
in, even these peanuts are saved
and are turned into bacon, while
their manurial value goes back in
to the soil.
Peanut oil promises to be in
greater demand than ever before
because, according to the Depart
ment of Agriculture authorities, it
is one of the most important of the
worlds food oils, and doubly i'm
portant under present conditions.
With European imports cut off and
a scarcity of cotton-seed oil there
is every assurance o ia considerable
demand at good prices. American
mills, however, are not getting the
best prices for their product be-
cause they do not shell and clean
the nuts and remove the germs.
Where this is done, and the first
pressing is made without heating
the material, the extracted oil is
clear and clean and equal in quail
ity to the finest imported olive oil,
though of a different and more nut
like favor. To many persons it is
more palatable than olive oil.
The Spanish type of peanut
should be grown for oil, and the
only additional equipment needed
is that used in peanut cleaning and
Smelling factories. Peanut meal,
left as a by-product of oil extrac-
ton, is a very nutritious stock
feed.