The Monticellonian., 1917-09-21

prepared by the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture
With the prospective crop of pea
nuts for the South placed by some alt
thorities at 100000 bushels, this
newly popular product is in position
to dispute to a considerable extent the
dominion of King Cotton. In Texas
alone approximately 100000 acres of
peanuts are under cultivation this
year. This Is more than double the
acreage of last year, according to fig
lres collected by the United States de-
Partment of agriculture. The Texas
peanut acreage led that of all other
states in 1916 although in 1909 1t had
stood sixth.
The increase in peanut acreages this
year have been marked in other states
besides Texas. Georgia has jumped
from 100000 acres in 1916 to 1000
acres at present. These increases have
been induces of the increase through
out the lower South, though the pro-
portionate increase elsewhere has not
been so great For the South as a
whole, however, 1t is remarkable that
the acreage has increased from less
than 1,125,000 acres to more than q
100000 acres.
This crop has long been important
in North Carolina, Virginia and Geor-
gia with Suffolk. Va. as the head
quarters of the industry. Here the
price of peanuts Is to large extent
ah1iSbnd no nh
at prevailing prices peanuts are In
competition with cotton.
Beating the Boil Weevi
The boil weevil 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 We're on
the verge of shutdown with their
supply of cotton seed diminished. The
department of agriculture 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 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-
scented 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
into the fields to harvest the nuts. and
were marketing the crop ION the hoof"
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 little topping off with corn to
harden the meat. Furthermore, If the
peanut hay Is harvested before the
hogs are turned in. the hay alone al
most pays for the growing of the
crop, because 1t furnishes palatable
food to which all kinds of stock will
turn eagerly from any other kind Of
hay. And If that were not enough,
the peanuts, 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 bene-
flied; but 1t was brought to their at
tention that the United States, in 1914
was importing 1882, 10S gallons of pea
nut oil, and 1859. 7S9 pounds of nuts
hi . Ill
Chicago and presumably went into
oleomargarine and the lower grades
into soap. The oil brought more than
cottonseed oil. A few changes In the
oil mills, having to do largely with the
cleaning of the peanuts, and they We're
ready for the extraction, and the pea
nuts began to come to them. Recent
ly. there has been such demand for
the nuts themselves, for manufacture
into products elsewhere, that the mills
have not been doing much extraction
because they could make more han
ding the nuts themselves than they
could by selling the extracted product
A single manufactures of peanut but
ter, for example, uses more than 200
carloads of shelled nuts a year and
expects soon to go to 500 carloads.
Bakers use immense quantities in
cakes and CONNECTIONS, and it is stated
that many chocolate cake is coated
with mixture of which peanuts form
q considerable part. With imports
cut off by the war, prices are high and
give present large impetus to grow
Ing peanuts; and even at present
prices for cotton, peanuts are more
profitable where there is serious depre-
dation by the weevil.
Where Peanuts Excel.
The South has great deal of sandy
soil, and in many sections corn sue
cumbs to the dry weather just at the
time when 1t most needs moisture.
Such soils in such sections furnish just
the right conditions for peanuts, which
Moisture and Plant Food.
Plants muSt have not only an ahun-