The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-08-03
Consider thePeanut

While cotton is still king in the
South, the peanut promises to dispute
or to share its dominion in some Sec
tions as part of well-balanced farm
ing practice. The State of Texas, for
example, has planted 100000 acres to
peanuts, more than doubling the acre
| age of last year, according to figures
just issued by the United States De-
partment of Agriculture. The pros
pective crop, on the same authority,
( is more than 70 million bushels for
the whole South. Texas 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 increase
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 increased from
less than a million and a quarter
acres to more than two million acres.
The peanut may have been held in
light esteem in the popular mind be-
cause of its association with circus
and clown, or because the expression
peanut politics" has designated a
low form of craftsmanship. Yet this
crop has long been important in North
Carolina, Virginia. and Georgia, with
Suffolk, Va, as the headquarters of
the industry. Here the price of pea
nuts is to a large extent established
for the whole country, and at prevail
ing prices peanuts are in competition
with cotton.
Beating the Boil Weevil.
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-men who were on the
verge of shutdown with their supply
of cotton seed diminished. The De-
partment 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
ten acreage to peanuts. This present
ed 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 "on the
hoof." The Department Of Agricul-
tire had proved that a 40-bushel crop
of Spanish 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. Further |
more, if the peanut hay is harvested |
before the hogs are turned in, the
hay alone almost pays for the growing |
of the crop, because it furnishes a pal |
atable 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 ben
Gifted; but it was brought to their at |
tention that the United States, in
1914, was importing 1920 gallons
of peanut oil, and 44,549,7S9 pounds |
of nuts. More than half of the oil |
went to Chicago and presumably went |
into oleomargerineA and the lower
grades into soap. The oil brought |
more than cotton seed OIL A few
changes in the oil mills, having to do |
largely with the cleaning of the pea
nut, and they were ready for the ex-
traction, and the peanuts began to
come to them. Recently, there has
been such demand for the nuts
themselves, for manufacture into pro-
ducts elsewhere, that the mills have |
not been doing much extraction be-
cause they could make more handling |
the nuts themselves than they could |
by selling the extracted product A |
single manufacturer 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 stat
ed that many chocolate cake is
coated with a mixture of which pea
nuts form a considerable part. With
imports cut off by the war, prices are
high and give a present large impet-
us to growing peanuts; and even at
present prices for cotton, peanuts are |
more profitable where there is Sc
rious depreciation by the weevil.
Where Peanuts Excel.
The South has great deal of san
dy soil, and in many sections corn sue
cumbs 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 leses rain than corn.
If the peanut could choose its own bed,
it would pick these sandy lands as
just the right place.
Furthermore, the peanut improves
these lands. if proner methnds are