The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1917-02-02
DEAR SIR


have had numerous requests for
information as to the growing and
harvesting OF peanuts, so in order to
furnish it with the feast amount of
trouble, | have prepared this letter
for distribution to those interested.
Lsat spring | visited the Spanish
peanut section around Petersburg,
Va, talked with individual farmers as
to their methods, and during the year
1916, was directly interested in six
teen hundred acres of peanuts, so the
information given you is born of ex-
perience, and believe, correct.
The variety TO grow for oil mills is
the small white Spanish. These con-
tain more oil than any other variety,
are easier worked and harvested. and
fewer are left in tile ground They
are worth ten and fifteen cents more
per bushel to an oil mill than any
other varieties. Home grown seed
are best; they produce about ten per
cent more than the North Carolina.
and Virginia stock, and generally give
better stand, provided. of course,
the home nuts are picked with a pick
er, not frailed on thrashing ma
chine
Almost any we'll drained land in
I -
Southern Georgia Alabama will grow
peanuts. ! made good peanuts on red
land and on white sand. Do not plant
in ponds or low places; they will not
make well in such places an ordinary
year, and wet year they produce
practically nothing. Flat-break your
land, and if you use no fertilizer or
lime i'll the drill, harrow it and plant,
letting the planter open its own way.
Ii Cole planter is used attach lit
tie drag to it, made of E scant-
ling and about 20 inches long with a
row of nails across the bottom; let
this drag about six inches behind the
wheel. This will fill the furrow left
by the planter. and let the peanuts
come up on level If you use ferti-
lizer or lime iii the drill, lay off rows,
put in the fertilizer or lime and list
on. then run the planter on top of
the list, using the drag TO level off the
iurrow. Cole troopers are satisfac-
tory il drag is used; otherwise, it will
leave peanuts below the level.
Arrange the covering so as to get
the nuts one and half inches deep.
for your first planting. which should
be about April lst to 10th. Later
paintings should be covered a little
deeper, say two or two and half in
ches. for the moisture will dry out
more rapidly. Do not plant when the
ground is wet; You will get poor
stand if you do. There should, of
course, be sufficient moisture to bring
them up, but caution is given against
planting when the ground is wet.
Remember, 1t is absolutely neces-
sary to let the peanuts come up on a
level ii you hope to make a good
crop. Work them FLAT. never dirt
them, for every bloom YOU cover up
means peanut lost The plants be-
gin to bloom right at the ground and
slightly below it, and if you pillow
two inches of dirt or even one inch
around them you cover those first
blooms, and lose just that much of
your crop. This is the most important
feature in the whole proposition. and
am trying to impress the fact. so
you may avoid the mistake generally
made Ill my section this year 1910.
1t you will get them up level. and
work them fiat. nature will take care
OF the pegs or shoots that come I'D
high on the vines. by causing them TO
lie down at the proper time. so these
pegs can grow in the ground
We did most of our planting down
III water furrow thinking to work
the dirt to the vines and then plow
1t high around them, and make pea
nuts from the bottom to top This was
a HAT failure, we lost the bottom crop
entirely; the. dirt we put around them
propped up the vines so they could
not lie down, soawe got only az small
top crop. DON'T MAKE THIS
MISTAKE.
Rows should be 20 to 80 inches
wide, and the nuts four TO eight inches
in the drill. Ordinarily the more nuts
you put to the acre the larger crop
You will make. Don't have wide
rows, and plant II to IS inches in
the drill; you cannot have a large
crop ii you do
SHELLlNG-I prefer to shell the
nuts, others prefer to plant them in
the hull If planted in the hull they
do not come up regularly, but off and
on for three weeks or a month. which
is Objectionable. The. planter often
chokes up and loses both the iihts and
a considerable part of the stand. By