Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — JUST THINK OF IT. [ARTICLE]

JUST THINK OF IT.

We Bat •10,000,000 Worth of Peaauta Ever.. 1 car, The pea:.n :. i . c sold by street venders and others are not the firstclass article, says a dealer. The best peanuts are used for other purposes. They are made into meal and grits by scientific men, and In Germany they are prepared for sick people in the hospitals. The peanuts you get in candy are the very poorest grade. Peanuts originally same from Central and South America. They grow there in long pods, and the pods contain from four to five kernels. They were carried to the old world In the early days, and in the seventeenth century they constituted the chief staple of Africa. The negroes who were Imported from Africa to this country brought over the peanut and they first grew in Virginia. And now this country is raising the crop, and, owing to American shrewdness, the nut is ground and used for various purposes and shipped all over the world. In 1861 and 1865 peanut oil was manufactured largely In four Southern States, and was employed as a substitute for olive oil. Sometimes peanut oil is used for lighting, and again it is utilized to advantage in the making of soap and as a lubricant in machine shops. The American peanut is larger and better flavored than any other, but it does not contain so much oil as the African nut The “cake” which is left after extracting the oil makes excellent feed for cattle, and is used very largely for that purpose in Germany, where It sells for from S3O to $33 a ton. The United States now produces 4,000,000 bushels of peanuts annually, er 88,000,000 pounds. The total world’s supply amounts to about 600,000,000 pounds. It is estimated that $10,000,000 worth are eaten every year in the United States.