Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1894 — PEANUTS. [ARTICLE]

PEANUTS.

How They Are Grown and Made Ready for Market. There were few peanuts grown in this country previous to the war. During that period they formed a considerable portion of the Confederate soldier’s bill of fare, and when the war was over the Southern people were so impoverished that they turned their hand to the first thing that seemed available. Peanuts could be grown without great expense in preparation, and the first real crop of peanuts, in 1866, proved a great success. It is now estimated that 4,000,000 bushels are annually placed upon the market. Peanuts grow upon a trailing vine with leaves much resembling small four-leaved clover. The small yellow flower it bears is shaped like the blossom of all the pea family. The soil in which it is cultivated must be light and sandy; after the flower falls away, the flower-stalk elongates and becomes rigid, curving in such a way as to push the forming pod well below the surface of the earth; if by any accident this is not done, the nut never matures. They are planted in rows about three feet apart, and tile vines spread until the ground is covered by them. Harvesting is done after the first frost, and the yield is often 100 bushels to the acre, making this a more profitable crop than wheat or cotton. The vines, with the nuts clinging to them, are torn up with pronged hoes, and allowed to dry in the sun for a day or two, and then stacked to cure. In about a fortnight the nuts are picked off, the empty ones, which are technically called “pops,” being rejected. The picking is done by hand, and is slow work, as an expert laborer can pick only three bushels a day.