Read Ebook: The Peanut Plant: Its Cultivation And Uses by Jones B W

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PER ONE HUNDRED PARTS OF ASH.

In this analysis neither the carbonic acid nor carbon were determined.

It was further stated that the kernels yielded 2.08 per cent. of ash.

These analyses, the one of the ash, and the other of the seed and husk in their natural state, are sufficiently full for the purpose in view, and serve admirably to show the principal elements required in the growth of the Peanut plant. We see that albuminous matter and starch form a very large per cent., over three-fourths, of the seed. Of course an article so rich in fat-forming ingredients, must be well suited for the food of man or beast. This explains why hogs fed on peanuts take on fat so readily. Nothing will change the appearance of a poor hog sooner than a diet of peanuts. The amount of oil in the seed--sixteen per cent., makes the Peanut one of the best oil-producing plants in the world.

Of the mineral constituents, potash forms by far the largest part--44.73 per cent. Soda, magnesia, and phosphoric acid also enter quite largely into the composition of this plant. It will be noticed that common salt plays some part in the make-up of the Peanut.

FOOTNOTE:

PLANTING.

But any soil that can be put into a friable condition, and kept so during the period of cultivation, will produce salable peanuts, provided it contains enough lime to insure solid pods. If it is known that a piece of land will produce sound corn, at the rate of from five to ten barrels per acre, the planter may rest satisfied, without further experiment, that it will yield from forty to seventy-five or eighty bushels of peanuts. As the cultivation extends, and more land is needed for this crop, much of it is being put upon clayey soil, and when well cultivated, it generally produces heavy peanuts. Indeed, more pounds per acre may be grown upon some stiff lands than on any light soil, however calcareous. But clayey land, or such as is dark or tenacious, will impart a stain or dark color to the pods that is objectionable to buyers, and hence soils of this nature are generally avoided. A tenacious soil is also colder and more inert than a light one during the earlier part of the summer, and as the Peanut plant requires a rather long term of warm weather to insure full growth and maturity, a warmer and quicker soil is preferable. Buyers, however, are not now quite so particular as formerly in regard to color, and hence there is more inducement to plant on any ground that will yield good, solid peanuts, and it is being more frequently done.

But the actual or prospective peanut planter, who has an ash-colored or grayish soil, which is sandy and non-adhesive, is fortunate. If he will keep it well limed and trashed, or else rotate every fourth or fifth year with the Southern Field Pea, or other green crop, and marl, he will have land that will continue to produce paying crops of the brightest and most salable peanuts. There is an abundance of good peanut land all along the Atlantic seaboard, from New Jersey to Florida. Doubtless there is much of it in the Mississippi Valley, even as far north as the lake region, and on the Pacific coast from Oregon southward. There is no more reason for confining the cultivation of the Peanut to the narrow belts at present occupied, than there is for limiting tobacco to the States of North Carolina and Virginia.

The quantity of lime or marl to use at one application depends very much on the nature of the soil and the amount of vegetable matter it contains. Generally, fifty bushels of lime, or one hundred and fifty bushels of marl is a safe application, but if the soil is quite thin, and contains but little vegetable mould, more than this at one time would be attended with risk. The safer plan is, to make several small annual applications of both marl, and vegetable matter, continuing this until a hundred and fifty bushels of lime, or two hundred and fifty, or three hundred bushels of marl have been applied. After this, no more calcareous matter will be needed in fifteen or twenty years. Land will bear large quantities of marl with perfect safety, if kept well stocked with some vegetable matter to subdue its caustic effects. But as most of the best peanut soil is deficient in this respect, the planter should begin cautiously, using small quantities until he has deepened his soil and supplied it with vegetable mould by trashing the land or turning in green crops.

In choosing land for a peanut crop, some attention should be paid to the previous crop. The Peanut requires a clean soil, one clear of roots, brush, stones, or rubbish of any kind, and hence it should follow some hoed crop, such as corn, cotton, or tobacco. In Virginia, corn land is generally preferred, and, as in the tide-water section, much of this land has been heavily marled, it commonly produces well.

The preparation of the soil for the Peanut is the same as for corn, or any similar crop, except that more pains should be, and generally are taken, to get it in fine and mellow tilth. If it breaks up rough and turfy, as much land previously in corn is apt to do, it should be harrowed or dragged until it is fine. Generally, Virginia planters do not plow quite so deep for peanuts as they do for corn. This practice the writer believes to be unsound. Land should be plowed deep at the outset for all crops, whatever their nature or manner of growth. Deep plowing is a corrective of dry weather, and as drouth sometimes tells heavily on the Peanut plant, as was the case in the season of 1883, it is always well to plow deep, and give the moisture of the subsoil a chance to rise upward, and reach the roots during a dry spell. The formation of a fine, mellow seed bed, is all the preparation a peanut soil requires, previous to planting time, apart from the application of manures, which is spoken of elsewhere.

In order to determine whether the seed will germinate well or not, let the planter begin to test them early in the spring. Let him take a dozen or two kernels that appear to be in quality a fair average of the whole lot of seed on hand, place them in a tumbler with some dampened cotton, or a piece of sponge, and set the tumbler in a warm place, where the heat is uniform, and high enough to start the germ in a few days. In a day or two, if the seeds are good, they will begin to swell, and the embryo plant will soon begin to grow. Thus, according to the number of seeds that have germinated out of the number tested, the planter can calculate the probable per-centage of good seed. A glass of peanuts growing thus in dampened cotton, presents an interesting study, and is a pretty ornament for the sitting room.

But the planter must not rest satisfied with one trial. As soon as the out-of-door temperature will admit of it, he should try quite a number of the seeds in the open ground. Selecting a warm, sunny spot, he should plant from fifty to one hundred kernels, and shelter the place as much as possible from the cold winds. If these germinate well, the seed may be relied upon as good, and no further trial need be made. It is in this way that the Virginia planter tests his seed every season. About the first of April there is a great testing of the seed peanuts, and, although nearly every planter endeavors to save his own seed, the quantity of doubtful seed is generally great enough to cause a brisk demand for good seed at advanced prices. The method of saving seed peanuts will be given in a subsequent chapter.

Some weeks before planting time, the Virginia farmer, who plants from fifty to a hundred bushels of peanuts, starts about having them shelled and assorted, preparatory to planting. This must be done with care, and females are mostly employed to perform this work. The pods are popped open with the fingers and thumb, care being taken not to split or bruise the kernel; all shrivelled and dark colored kernels are rejected. After they are shelled, the seed must be put into bags or baskets, a small quantity in each parcel, and set where there is a free circulation of air, until wanted for planting. If a large quantity is bulked together after being shelled, or if put in a close box or barrel, even in small quantities, they are liable to heat, and be prevented from germinating. This fact is the result of some costly experience on the part of many planters. Thus it becomes necessary to handle the seed with great care and circumspection throughout. From a bushel to a bushel and a half of peanuts in the hull, or pod, is estimated to be enough to plant one acre of ground, the quantity depending on the quality of the seed and the distance apart they are to be planted.

If the ground has been once plowed in the early spring, let it be plowed again only a few days before planting time, and if at all rough, or cloddy, have it harrowed until in fine tilth. When ready to plant, draw furrows the same as for corn, two and a half or three feet apart. If the land is fresh and strong, and never before in peanuts, make the rows at least three feet apart. After a year or two on the same ground, peanut vines will not grow so large as at first, and need not be so far apart, either from row to row, or from hill to hill. When the land is thin, some plant as near as twenty-seven inches from row to row, and twelve inches from hill to hill.

If any fertilizer is to be used, let it be put in the furrow before the ridge is formed; a man or boy following the plow and spreading the fertilizer by hand. A small ridge is then formed by lapping two furrows over the drill with the turn plow, after which the knocker and dotter follow, one leveling the ridge, and the other dotting the row by making little depressions in the soil the proper distance apart for the seeds.

Hands--women, children, or men, follow the dotter, dropping a seed in each mark or depression, and carefully covering it with the foot, by pressing enough soil into the hole to just fill it. The holes are made one and a half to two inches deep, and the hands are cautioned not to get the seed covered deeper than that. One inch is deep enough to plant, if the soil is moist, but if quite dry the seed may be put deeper. Proceeding in this way, covering first with one foot and then with the other, the planters get on quite rapidly, although the hills are so near together. The planting is not at all tedious after one gets the knack of it, and is light and pleasant work. Some planters put two kernels instead of one in each hill, to insure a stand, but this practice increases the cost considerably, and is by no means general. After the seeds are planted they are very slightly, if at all, above the common level. In a week or ten days from the time of planting, the seeds will begin to heave or crack the ground, which shows that the germ has started, and greatly relieves the anxiety of the planter. Then, by counting the number of signs in a hundred hills, the farmer readily calculates what kind of a stand he will probably have.

In replanting, it is well to put two or more kernels to the hill, as the season will be getting late, and no time should be lost in securing a good stand. There can be no subsequent replanting with any profit.

Backward springs are a great drawback in the cultivation of this crop, and cause many farmers to delay planting until it is certain warm weather cannot be many days off. If the planter could always be sure of his seed, this would be the better plan, but if these late plantings fail to come up well, the season is too far advanced for replanted seed to make a crop. Further north than Virginia, however, it would, we think, be decidedly better to put off planting until both soil and air are warm enough to insure quick germination, and then, instead of replanting the missing hills with Peanuts, plant beans or field peas instead. If the planter can get through the first month successfully, he lays aside his fears, and enters upon his work with renewed hope and energy. To a recital of this work--the work of cultivation, we now invite the reader's attention.

CULTIVATION.

If the first plan is followed, the missing hills may be replanted, if the former replanting has had time to come up, but otherwise the ground about the missing hills should not be disturbed. This, however, should depend upon the time at which the weeding begins. If very late, it is useless to replant.

The time for the first weeding must depend somewhat on the nature of the soil and the quantity of grass that may have sprung up since planting. Usually the first working should begin by the time the plants are two weeks old, but if the land is mellow and there is but little grass, the work may be put off a week longer. But if rains have occurred and a crust has formed, and especially if grass is coming on rapidly, the planter should not wait for the plants to attain a certain age and size, but should proceed to work the crop as soon as the plants are clearly out of the ground, and have put forth one or two branches. Any practical farmer who knows how to plow and weed young corn, will not be likely to err very far in working a crop of peanuts. The operation is simple enough, the two points being to clear away the grass and make the soil fine and loose around the plants. Any plan of working that will secure these ends, will accomplish the purpose.

The third plowing may be given with a shovel or cotton-plow, or with the cultivator, again running twice in the row. The hoes need not follow at this plowing, but may wait until the fourth plowing, done usually toward the middle or last of July, or about the time the vines are a foot in diameter, and are sending down their peduncles, or stems, on which the young pods are forming. The plants begin to blossom by the first of July or before, and continue to flower for more than a month. The pods begin to form very soon after the flower appears, and by the time of the last weeding great care must be taken not to cut the stems. For this reason the hoes cannot proceed as fast as at the last weeding, and if there is much grass growing up through the vines to be hand picked, this working is tedious and laborious enough, and tires to the utmost the patience and endurance of the laborer. In fact, this is the worst period in the cultivation of the peanut crop. The weather is hot, close, and enervating; the frequent stooping and picking makes it doubly laborious; and, on account of the size the vines have attained, the plow must necessarily leave a wider surface for the hoe to go over. All this makes greatly against the hoe hands.

It is no wonder, then, that, with laborers, many of whom are disposed to shirk their duty, the last working is too often poorly and inefficiently done. With more reliable labor, such as is to be had in the Northern and border States, better success would be easily attainable.

The third weeding is the last working with the hoe that the crop receives, and next to the last usually given it with the plow. The Virginia planter, as a rule, stops weeding by the first of August, or as soon as the vines have well met along the row, and have sent down a goodly number of young pods. If there is any subsequent removal of grass, it is done by picking it out by hand, in order not to interfere with the pod stems. But after the last weeding, say in a week or ten days, one more plowing is usually given, generally with the cultivator or shovel-plow, run once in the row. This throws the soil up under the extremities of the vines, leaving the row of plants on a nice flat bed and a water furrow in the middle of the balk.

The reader will observe that the cultivation required for the Peanut is such as will keep the soil mellow and loose on the surface and clear of grass, especially about the vines or plants. Any method of weeding and plowing that will secure these ends, will serve the purpose. Accordingly, there is a considerable diversity of practice in this particular, both as to the mode of plowing, times of working the crop, and implements used. The cultivation, however, is as easy and simple as that commonly bestowed on Indian corn or beans, but must be a little more thorough and painstaking. That is all. None need shrink from planting this crop through any apprehension that they will not work it properly. The three essential points are: keep the soil loose, the grass down, and do no harm to the young pods as they are forming on the vine.

The weeders should be armed with the best steel hoes, with factory-made helves of ash, light and slightly flexible. The superiority of this hoe--usually called the "goose-neck hoe" in Virginia--over the old style of weeding hoe, with the heavy and stiff home-made helve, cannot be estimated, except by those who have tried both. The same hand can perform an eighth more labor in a day with the light steel hoe, and do it better, and with more ease to himself. The "goose-neck" will last two or three seasons, costs but little more than the other kind, comes ready for work, and is, therefore, very cheap. The blades should be kept sharp by repeated filing.

With us the first plowing is generally done with the turn-plow, with a small mould-board attached, throwing the earth into the balk. For the second plowing, the cultivator or cotton-plow, is used, either one of which does fine work on smooth land, and makes it quite easy for the hoe hands. The third plowing is commonly performed with the cultivator, but if the ground is rough, the turn-plow will answer better. It is not common, however, to plant peanuts on very rough ground. For the fourth and fifth plowings the cultivator or shovel-plow is used. But should the crop get very grassy, , the turn-plow, with large mould-board attached, is used, in order to cover up as much of the grass as possible. This makes a large and objectionable ridge in the balk, but it is the best way to conquer the grass when it gets too strong a hold. The hoes follow the plow, and scrape off the remaining grass, except that near the plants, into the balk. Bunches of grass that have grown up among the vines have to be pulled out by hand. Thus, it will be seen that there is no plow made especially for cultivating the peanut crop, the same plows and implements that are used for other and general farming purposes answering equally well for the cultivation of this crop also.

Such is the crop to which we have invited the reader's attention, and the planting and cultivation of which we have endeavored to describe. Having proceeded thus far, let us pause a moment, as the writer has done, time and again, to survey the beautiful prospect of a field of peanuts in full maturity. There it is, a literal carpet of living green, covering acres on acres of mother earth, and beneath its velvet folds is quietly growing the wealth that is to make its owner independent, and by means of which the planter's family is to secure most of the necessaries and comforts of life. No crop outside of the market gardens, yields so much actual cash per acre as this. No wonder, then, that it readily becomes popular with all who try it, and that it never loses ground wherever introduced under favorable circumstances.

An interval of about two months now elapses, during which the crop requires no attention. The seed pods are filling and maturing, and the whole plant is ripening for the harvest.

HARVESTING.

If, however, the crop has been planted early, and the leaves begin to fall from the vines, it is better to start the plow and dig the crop at once. When the Peanut plant gets fully matured, it is very apt to begin to cast its leaves, especially on ground that has been planted in peanuts often before. After the leaves fall off, the vines are of very little value as hay, and as most planters consider them excellent provender, they make it a point to harvest the crop in time to secure good hay. For the same reason, effort is made to dig and shock the vines before a killing frost occurs. Frost spoils the vines for fodder, though it does no harm to the pods, unless it be for seed. Some suppose that seed taken from frost-bitten vines will not come up well.

In the latitude of Virginia the usual time for digging the peanut crop is the second and third weeks in October. That is, the great bulk of the crop is dug about this time, though some start the first week in that month, and others wait until the close, unless driven to start earlier by the weather. In rare cases, some planters dig by the twenty-fifth of September, but it is generally believed that all who start thus early lose more in weight and yield than they gain in time or price. Six or ten days of mild weather at this stage of the crop, will make an appreciable difference in the yield, and if the peanuts can remain in the ground until the latter part of October, there will be very few saps, or immature pods. But, in whatever latitude the planter may reside, the general rule should be, to dig before a killing frost occurs.

Hands with pitchforks follow the plow, lift the vines from the loose soil, shake them well to get the earth off, and then lay them down, either singly or in small piles, to remain a day or two to wilt and cure in the sun. This is light work, and can be done rapidly, two hands being enough to keep up with one plow. If rain is feared, it is best to lay the vines down singly after shaking them, for, when in piles, if rain occurs, and the weather is warm, the pods are apt to speck and mildew before the vines can dry out. A rain falling on the pods after they are dug, and before they are shocked, does no harm, if the sun comes out soon to dry them before they can mildew.

Instead of leaving the vines on the ground a day or two to cure, many shock them up at once. If the vines are perfectly dry, this is as good a plan as any. But if the weather should be warm, and the vines are wet with dew or rain when put up, they will be sure to heat, and the pods will turn dark. In cold weather the vines may be shocked both green and wet without risk.

The method of shocking the Peanuts will be understood from figure 5, which represents a shock as it stands in the field. A shock as it is taken down for picking is shown in figure 6. The vines are first laid together in piles, about as much as one can handily carry on the fork at one time, three rows being put in one. The stakes, which have been previously prepared, are then set in the ground proper distances apart, and two billets of wood, four or five inches in diameter and two feet long, are placed beside each stake to keep the vines off the ground. A handful of vines is then laid, pods up, on one side of the stake for a bed, and the same on the other side. After this the vines are put on, pods down. The first are inverted to keep the pods off the ground, though this is a matter of trifling importance, if the billets of wood are large enough. The successive handfuls of vines are laid up with care, keeping the shock level, lapping the vines, and placing them on every side to make the work even. As the work progresses the vines may be pressed down with the hands, and the shocks are finished off round at top, the better to shed the water. No cap or covering for the shocks is used, though much would frequently be saved, could a cheap one be had. A board nailed on the top of the stakes would protect the top layer very much, and yet the planter who should adopt it would doubtless be laughed at.

A fast hand can put up fifty or sixty shocks a day, with a boy to bring up the vines and assist in planting the stakes. Some shockers use the fork to lay up the vines, especially toward the top. The shocks are put up one in a place wherever needed, so as to make the work convenient for the carrier. Some, however, put three or more shocks together, as suits their fancy, in which case fence rails are usually employed to build the shocks upon.

The above method is generally practised, but there are many variations in almost every detail. We have endeavored to give a clear idea of a safe method.

We answer, because the pods cure better in the shock than in any other way. They get dry sooner, and make heavier and brighter peanuts than could possibly be the case, were they gathered at once, and spread, even in very thin layers, on scaffolds to dry. Besides, as rain on the pods when they are about half cured, or during the process of curing, would be very harmful, it is found best to protect the pods by covering them in shock. They can get more air in shock than if spread on a scaffold, and a free circulation of air about them is important. A scaffold close enough to hold the pods would exclude the air in every direction, except from above. When shocks are put up well, the pods are very effectually protected, except a few on the top, and in about ten days are cured nice and bright, and ready to be picked off. The shocks may remain in the field many weeks, subject to repeated rains, without material injury. Of course rains of several days continuance would damage the peanuts more or less. It is best therefore, on this account, and because of the numerous depredators that prey upon the crop while it remains in the field, to house it as soon as sufficiently cured to render it certain the pods will not heat and spoil when in bulk.

Next to the animals named, birds are most destructive, while the peanuts are in shock. Such birds as the blue-jay, crow, partridge, yellow hammer, wild turkey, and blackbird, coming, as some of them do, not singly, but in companies and flocks of hundreds and thousands at a time, carry off vast quantities, unless the planter is always on the alert, gun in hand, ready to meet them at every turn. Near the James, and other large rivers, it is a common occurrence to see, not thousands only, but tens of thousands of blackbirds in a single field at one time. They often go in flocks covering acres on acres of ground, and with their ceaseless activity and endless trilling, present an appearance of which city-bred people can form no adequate idea. Of course they destroy a vast amount of peanuts in a short time, unless speedily driven off.

There are also several species of field rats and mice, together with the domestic rats and mice that get into the shocks to feed on the pods, where they remain until disturbed by the pickers. Everything seems fond of the Peanut after it is made, and if the planter escapes the insect enemies in the summer, the exemption is more than offset by the numerous and voracious depredators of the fall and winter.

And against most of them, there is no effective remedy, the planter cannot watch his crop all the time, and traps are hardly worth using. It is true, something may be done with steel traps for such animals as the fox, raccoon, and squirrel. But for the rest, despatch in removing the crop from the field, is the only certain preventive. Even then the planter does not entirely escape, for rats and mice follow him within doors, and riot in luxurious living so long as a single shock remains undisturbed. Perhaps no crop the Southern farmer grows is subject to heavier or oftener repeated losses than the Peanut. Yet, despite it all, it is a crop that often pays very handsome returns. It has been, and is, the sheet anchor of many an East Virginia farmer, and if prices hold up, will continue to be, so long as there are lands here that will produce thirty bushels of peanuts to the acre. This is but the minimum; the maximum is not known; a hundred and thirty bushels per acre has been attained.

Of course these peanuts must not be lost. Women and children are employed to pick them up at so much per bushel. If it is found that many pods remain in the ground, a cultivator or light plow is run along the rows to bring them in sight. In this way the most of the loose peanuts are saved. Still, numbers will be left in the ground. The planter is at no loss, however, to secure these also, which he does by turning his fattening hogs on the ground as soon as he can remove the crop from the field. Hogs are exceedingly fond of the Peanut, and as soon as they find them out, they will continue to root for them as long as one can be had. Frequently, every square yard of large fields, will be burrowed over by the hogs in their search for the detached peanuts. No crop the planter grows will fatten a hog so quickly as the Peanut. Thus in the harvesting of this beautiful and profitable crop, nothing is allowed to be lost.

It is customary to dig and shake the vines as usual, and leave them in the field four or five days, or a week, before they are either piled or shocked. In this time, if the weather is fair, the vines will be so nearly cured that not enough moisture will remain in them to create a heat, even in very warm weather, and they may then be shocked with perfect safety, after which they should remain in the field until thoroughly dry. Rain falling on the vines while they are lying in the field, does no harm, except it be to turn the pods a little dark, which circumstance makes no difference with seed peanuts.

When the seeds are picked off, keep them in baskets until ready to spread them in a cool, dry room, where they will be exposed to a free circulation of air. In no case should they be in bulk. Spread them thinly in some loft, where the air will reach them, and where they will be secure from rats and mice. They may be stored in sacks the same as for sale, and laid in an airy room to remain all winter. They should not be kept in a room where there is a stove, or one subject to currents of hot air.

These suggestions embody all that need be done to secure good seed. If peanuts are fully cured when picked off, and are not kept too close, they will prove good seed, unless there is some radical defect of the germ or vital powers. Keep them from heating, and they will germinate and grow as readily as corn. Every planter may, and should, save his own seed. According to the number of acres that he thinks of planting, let him provide two bushels of seed , for each acre, and he will have enough and some to spare.

MARKETING.

It requires as much judgment to market a crop well, as it does to raise and harvest it, and often more. Unfortunately, the majority of planters are sadly deficient in that knowledge of commercial life, which would make them masters of the situation. Too often they are bound by lien or mortgage, or else they have run up a heavy bill at the country store, and when the crop is made and ready for market, they are obliged to sell forthwith. Generally too, this is the very time when prices are lowest, and so the planter is obliged to part with the fruits of his labor at the most unfavorable rates, and allow the middlemen to pocket the profits. It is only by careful economy and prudent management, on the part of each planter for himself, that this evil is to be corrected. Without entering into the details of commercial affairs, we will endeavor to show the planter how he may go into market with his crop, prepared to command the best prices. To this end, it is essential that he have his crop in the best marketable condition, remembering that a good article always sells well.

In picking, the pops should be refused altogether, and the saps and very dark pods go by themselves. Many planters, however, leave the saps on the vines, saving the best only. The saps, however, will sell, either in pod or shelled, and if numerous, will more than pay for picking them. It is, therefore, so much gained. It must be confessed, however, that the presence of a good many saps on the vines, makes them much more valuable as feed.

Just here let us explain that "pops" are pods that have attained full size and firmness, but which are minus the seed. Dry weather, and the lack of calcareous manures in the soil, will cause many pops. "Saps" are immature pods, the last to form on the vine, and which might become good peanuts if they could have a longer period of growing weather. The presence of pops in the marketable peanuts is very detrimental to their sale, and hence should be carefully rejected in picking. Saps also are detrimental, but to a less extent than pops.

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