The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1919-04-01
PEANUT MEAL GOOD
FOR FEED OR LAND
CHEMICAL TESTS PROVE THAT
THIS PEANUT PRODUCT is A
FOOD OR FERTILIZER.

The Camilla Cotton Oil Il FERTILE
er company have an advertisement in
this issue of the Enterprise that
strikes US as being particularly wor-
thy of the attention of the farmers
of Mitchell county. Of course, the
! advertisement is in the interest of
the local concern, but their line of
argument ir regard to the benefits
that will come to the farmers who
patronize them is we'll put, and they
bring reliable testimony from repu-
table chemists to back their state
ments.
There has been great deal of dis
cussion of the relative merits of pea
nut-fed hogs as compared with corn
feds in the newspapers of the state.
The packers claim that peanut-fed
hogs are too oily and flabby to re-
frigerate well.
The rub comes in fixing the differ
ence in price between the two kinds
of meat produced. 1t is to the inter
est of the packers to pay as much as
they can for hogs grown in the south
IN order to encourage the produc-
ton. 1t is to the interest of the far
mers to raise hogs and continue to
raise more hogs for these packing
plants, while at the same time seek
ing to improve the grade and breed
of hogs raised on the farms. The ad-
vertisement of the local oil mill seeks
to show that there is just as much
food in peanuts after the oil has been
removed as there is when the hogs
gather the peanuts in the fields. 1t is
further claimed that hogs fed on pea
nut meal will not be so oily and fab
by and will thus cut down the diff
ference or handicap under which pea
nut-fed hogs are sold.
Some of the best hog raisers in
the country are certain that the pea
nut is the best feed for hog, and
that the hog should harvest the nut.
They contend that owing to the ease
with which peanut crop can be made,
and the ease with which a hog feeds
himself in a peanut field, that even
with a difference Of from 2 to cents
a pound in the price obtained the
peanut-fed hog is still the most prof
liable. On the other hand equally as
good swine growers believe it to be
an economic waste to put good pea
nut oil through hogs, if it is possible
to save such a valuable by-product,
and at the same time get the benefit
of the heavy protein content of the
peanut by feeding it in the form of
meal, without making soft, oily pork.
In its final analysis it is just a ques-
ton of whether or not the cost of
the extra labor in gathering and
marketing peanuts pays better re-
turn for the money invested than the
cheaper method of letting the hogs
do the work, wasting the oil, and
then taking from to 2 cents a
pound less than can be obtained for
hard hogs.
The fertilizer value of peanut meal
is as much in dollars and cents as
that Of cotton seed meal, but the
properties contributing to plant food
vary in some small degree. In look
ing at the matter of using peanut
meal for fertilizing the farmer
considers, or should consider, the fact
that he is helping to provide a mark
ct for his own peanut, and that in
order for a good market to be main
tanned for his nuts there must first
be a market provided for peanut mill
products. Therefore, when the pea
nut mill men offer peanut meal for
sale as fertilizer, the farmer by all
the rules of self preservation should
ask himself the question whether he
wants to help himself, or help some
other farmer in some other section
of the United States.
1t is case of where the farmer
and the oil mill men should get to-
gether and come to some agreement
as to the proper price for peanuts,
and a proper price for peanut meal,
for as the situation now presents it.
self both sides need the other in
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