The Pensacola journal., 1920-03-19
GRADES
BEING STUDIED
OF AGRICULTURE
BELIEVES CROP is TO BECOME
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
IN THE SOUTH.

Washington, Mar 18.-Grading and
Standardization or peanuts IS one Of
the newest lines of work of the United
States Department Of Agriculture, with
a view to improving conditions of
handling, distributing and marketing
the crop and opening up wider and
new avenues for it's disposal Grading
and standardizing is being worked
out on the basis of a shelling test, it
is understood. Experts of the depart
ment have found that the measure or
weight of a quantity of the unshelled
nuts is not satisfactory guide for de-
termining the proportion of edible
kernels contained in them, owing to
the dirt. shells and undeveloped kernels
present in a lot of the nuts.
The bureau of plant industry and
the bureau of markets of the agricul-
tural department, which are engaged
on this work of establishing grades
and standards for peanuts, hope to be
able to announce definite results be-
fore long, but the task is difficult and
complicated. The official grades and
WlSi1 SSlCD14S4to Will IlOI
be compulsory, but are expected by the
department to be so satisfactory that
they will be generally adopted by the
producers, buyers, dealers and users,
all of whom will be benefited, it is
predicted.
The peanut industry is great and
growing rapidly. Formerly the bulk
of American peanuts are said to have
been produced in southeastern Virginia
and eastern North Carolina. Their
cultivation has spread throughout the
South, especially since the advent of
the cotton boil weevil. Farmers, in
search of another money crop when
their cotton was ruined, turned to the
peanut, until last year 1881, 900 acres
in twelve southern states We're planted
in peanuts and the production of the
nuts was estimated at 33,263, 900
bushels by the department of agricul-
ture. Alabama is now the leading
state in peanut production with $780,
900 bushels to her credit in 1919, while
five other states produced from 3,40o,-
900 to 5,550.000 bushels each. The total
farm value of the crop was estimated
at nearly $SO,0o0,000.
But the end is not yet, for govern
ment scientists and other experts
familiar with the situation predict
big increase in the-produotion of pea
nuts, as realization grows and spreads
of the value of tsis crop as a soil i'm
prover, as feed for hogs and hay for
cattle, as the material from which
edible oils and fats. peanut butter and
meal, and the basis of many candies.
confections and other delectabIe dain-
ties. Increased consumption is bound
to follow Standardization of peanuts
a ff0ff - fe.
pecially as the growers and manufac-
turers of the nut take advantage of
their opportunities for exploiting their
products by proper methods of special
ization and advertising.
Something has already been done
along these lines, but much remains
to be done, in the opinion of DIR. L. c.
Corbett, specialist of the bureau of
plant industry, who has been cooper
at1ng with the bureau of markets in
the peanut work. Peanut oil for cook
ing the table purposes, Dr. Corbett
points out, was almost unknown before
the war. That great cataclysm, which
upset the whole world, opened the eyes
of the makers of salad oils, oleomar-
garine soap, and other products to the
fact that there was at hand a large
source of supply of materials they
HeSueu, namely IN the peanut. Dur
ing the war also, owing to scarcity of
their customary materials, the manu-
facturers turned to two other southern
sources of oil, cottonseed and COCO
nuts. Peanut oil is pronounced by the
government to be wholesome
The results of increased consumption
OF peanuts and peanut products is ap-
parent in the big demand for peanuts
and the high prices that they bring
This winter the average price was
$40 per bushel or about double what
it was few years ago; this in spite
of the fact that the production has
doubled or trebled within the past sew
eral years. AS Illustrating the in
creased use of peanuts, it is stated
that the Beechnut- Company, which
began to use carload or two ten
years or less since, is now using them
at the rate of 200 to 800 carloads an
nually. So satisfactory are demand
and prices that some of the depa rtnent
of agriculture experts believe thar nro-
duction will take care of itself.