Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1898 — JUST THINK OF IT. [ARTICLE]

JUST THINK OF IT.

W 9 Bat $10,000,000 Worth of Ptaamta Every Year, j The peanuts which are sold by strsst venders and others are not the flrefr class article, says a dealer, 'rhe 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 hos» pltals. The peanuts yeu get In candy tre the very poorest grade. j Peanuts originally came from Central and South America. They there in long pods, and the pods oon ! tain 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 st*i pie of Africa. The negroes who were Imported from Africa to this country brought over the peanut and they Arst grew in Virginia. And now this coon- ! try is raising the crop, and, owing te American shrewdness, the nut is ! ground and used for various purposes and shipped all over the world. i In 1861 and 1865 peanut oil was man- ' ufactured largely in four Southern States, and was employed as a substitute for Clive oil. Sometimes peanut oil is used-for lighting, and again it is utilized to advantage in the making es 1 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, or 88,000,000 pounds. The total worid‘s ■upply amounts to about 600,000,000 pounds. It is estimated that slo,ooo< 000 worth are eaten every - year in the United States.