Evening star., 1924-10-05


-Four quarts OF American peanuts,
taken to China 50 years ago by Arch
deacon Thompson, are the ancestors
or the Chinese peanut crop. which
now exceeds American production.
Modern Parable of Talents.
"Archdeacon Thompson generously
divided his four quarts OF peanuts
with DR.. Charles +. Mills of the
American Presbyterian Mission, who
was going to Shantung Peninsula,
DR.. Mills gave quart each to two
farmers. exacting the promise that
each should gradually increase the
peanuts for three years and at that
time use them for general distribu-
ton One of the farmers at the end
of the first year ate all his crop. The
second farmer fulfilled his contract
Shantung Peninsula in one year re-
Gently grew 100000 bushels OF the
large American peanuts.
Peanuts are one of the New
Worlds foremost credits for cancel
la tion of it's debt TO the Old World for
plants. shrubs and trees They help
pay the East for the delicious peach
and the soy bean. both of which orig
mated in China. Wheat. barley. rye.
timothy. apples and pears followed
the Star of the Empire westward
bound. But ranged beside the peanut
IS New World friends of all mankind
are maize. grown now to the ends of
the earth; the Irish potato. the to-
mato. tobacco, Brazilian rubber tree.
sisal and einchona, the tree that pro-
duces quinine.
Peanut Plant Natural Acrobat.
The plant that produces the peanut
is no ordinary member of the flower
world. 1t takes no back place among
plant acrobatS. such as the Venus fly
trap. which bats an insect and
SqueeZes it to death as terribly as an
Edgar Allan Poe engine of terror; the
butter and eggs which makes the
humble bees weigh in on its scales
before 1t gives admittance to the
money pot or the beggars' ticks which
steal rides. The peanut. since it be-
longs to the pea family, bears
strong resemblance to an ordinary
bean plant and has sunbonnet-shaped
flowers
But after pollination the flower
Stalk turns a somersault and grows
iapioiy toward the ground, buryi1
Jus SEED. pods among the roots. AS
the Summer advances these seed can
SUES grow, and when the plant is
mature full-grown peanuts are found
beneath the ground. Potatoes do
thls, out potatoes are bulbs. The pea
nut is one OF the few plants that ma
lures fertilized seed pods in the soil,
norfolk. Va, is regarded as the
peanut capital of the United States
aithoush Texas with 205,OOO acres in
peanuts has more land devoted to
this product than any other state
IN one year the total yield in the
United States was 623,5O7. 600 nopnds
valued at nearly $50. 900. 900. On The
plantations bordering the lanes
River, in Virginia, where tho R.n.
dolphs and other famous planters
made bonanza crops of tobacco in
the early days of colonization. nea-
nuts are now favorite crop. SOFT
sandy loam which the legumes favor
is found here. In this locality also
peanuts figure in the production of
the finest favored pork. Hams from
hogs permitted to root out 'goobers.
left in the ground after harvest arc
said to have flavor unequaled else
where in the United States.
Played Civil War Part,
THE South discovered the peanut
during the Civil War. Cut off by sea
from importing supplies, the Confed-
crates not only grew peanuts for
food and flour, but the oil was used
by mechanics to lubricate their loco
motives and other machinery, by cot
ton and wool spinners On theiS spin