The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-08-01
CONSIDER THE PEANUT
Annual Value Exceeds any Vsge'
table Except Potatoes-Beats Boil
Weevil-Keeps Oil Mills Going.

table Except Potatoes-Beats Boil
Weevil-Keeps Oil Mills Going.
While cotton is still king in tn
South, the peanut promises to dis
pute or share its dominion in some
sections as part of well-balance<
farming practice. The State Of Tex
a., for example, has planted 600.
900 acres Of peanuts; more thar
doubling the acreage of last year
according to figures issued by thu
United States Department Of Agri
culture. The prospective crop, OF
the same authority, is o thar
100000 bushels for the whole
South. Texas already had the largest
acreage in 1916, though in 1909 il
stood sixth, with most of the Allan
tic and Gulf Coast States ahead
Georgia jumped from 10000 acres
last year to 100000. The increase in
Texas has been an index of the in.
crease throughout the lower South.
though the proportionate increase
elsewhere has not been so great. For
the South as a whole, however, it is
remarkable that the acreage has in
creased from less than a million and
q quarter acres to more than two
million acres.
Beating Boil Weevil
The boil weevil drove many a Tex
as farmer to peanuts. From what
seemed to be hopeless situation the
peanut has rescued him, and at the
same time rescued the oil mill men
who were on the verge Of a shut
down with their supply Of cotton
seed diminished. The department
had long been advocating a change
from the single crop standard set by
cotton. AS long as cotton was the
only money crop the arguments fell
deaf ears, but, backed up by the
boil weevil the campaign began to
bear fruit. The farmers began to
give part Of the cotton acreage to
peanuts. This presented a new
problem and the oii-mill men began
to ask questions.
They found that many of the
growers were "hogging down" to
the peanuts; that is, they were turn
ing the hogs into the fields to har-
vest the nuts, and were marketing
the crop ION the hoof." The depart
ment had proved that a 4O-bushel
crop Of Spanish peanuts would pro-
duce more than 400 pounds Of pork
to the acre, and supplied a good "a
ton that needed only a little topping
off with corn to harden the meat.
Furthermore, if the peanut hay is
before the hogs are turn
ed in the hay alone almost pays for
the growing Of the crop, because it
furnishes q palatable food to which
all kinds Of stock will turn eagerly
from any other kind Of hay. And
If that were not enough, the pea
nuts, in common with other legumes,
bear nodules on their roots which
nitrogen from the air and put
it into the soil.
Where Peanuts Exeell
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 sections
furnish just the right conditions for
peanuts, which require less rain than
'orn. If the peanuts could choose its
bed, it would pick these sandy
as just the right place.
Furthermore, the peanut improves
'hese lands if proper methods are
Of course, if the pea
are removed for hay and the
'oots are wholly dug out in harvest
ng the crop, they will exhaust the
as any crop will where every-
hing is taken away and nothing re-
urned. 1t is a fortunate circumstan-
e, however, that the nuts themselves
row just below the surface Of the
round, while the Misunderstanding
cots go considerably deeper. A pillow
.igger which will go just below the
luts and cut the roots off at that
eint leaves the nitrogen-bearing in
he soil, and the same is true Of a
modified potato digger also used in
arvesting the crop. Even if a good
Many nuts are lost by cutting them
IF too close, the nitrogen left in the
oil by saving the roots is said to be
'orth from So to So an acre, and it
'ould take q good many peanuts to
lake up this value. If hogs are turn
d in, even these peanuts are saved
nd r turned into bacon, while
leir mAnurial value goes hack ;nAo