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Read Ebook: The Precious Name Proofs of the Godhead and a Hymn by Church J John
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Ebook has 23 lines and 2444 words, and 1 pages
PAGE.
Origin.--Natural History.--Varieties.--Possible Range.--Analysis. 5
Soil, and Mode of Preparation.--Seed.--Time and Mode of Planting.--Fertilizers.--Replanting.--Moles, and Other Depredators.--Critical Period. 14
First Plowing and Weeding.--Subsequent Workings.--Implements.-- When Cultivation should Cease.--Insect Enemies.--Effects of Cold.--Effects of Drouth.--Appearance at this Period. 27
When to begin Harvesting.--Mode of Harvesting.--Why Cured in the Field.--Depredators.--Detached Peanuts.--Saving Seed Peanuts. 37
Picking the Peanuts.--Price paid Pickers.--Cleaning and Bagging.--Peanut "Factories."--The best Markets.--Picking Machines. 46
Peanut Oil.--Roasted Peanuts.--Peanut Candy.--Peanut Coffee.-- Peanut Chocolate.--Peanut Bread.--Peanut Soap.--Peanuts as a Food for Stock.--Peanut Hay. 55
A. Statistics. 65
B. Costs. 67
C. The Peanut Garden of America. 67
THE PEANUT PLANT;
ITS CULTIVATION AND USES.
DESCRIPTION.
If, as seems probable, the Peanut is really a native of America, then this Continent has contributed to the agricultural world five plants that have exerted, and will continue to exert, an immense influence on the industries and commerce of the world. These are: the Potato, Cotton, Tobacco, Indian Corn, and the Peanut. Of these five, the Peanut, the last to come into general and prominent notice, is destined to rival some of the others in importance.
Whatever may have been its origin, the Peanut plant has gradually made its way over an extended area of the warmer parts of both the Old and New World, and in North America has gained a permanent foot-hold in the soil of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. Nor has it yet reached its ultimate limits, for cultivation and acclimation will inure it to a sterner climate, until it becomes an important crop in latitudes considerably further north than Virginia. This is indicated by its rapid spread within the past few years. Remaining long in comparative obscurity, it was not until a recent period that the Peanut gained prominence as an agricultural and commercial staple, but since it fairly started, its progress has been rapid and sure.
Root annual, branched, but not fibrous, yellowish, bitter, and warty; Stem procumbent, spreading, much-branched, somewhat hairy towards the extremities; Leaves compound, leaflets obovate, mucronate, margin entire, ciliate when young, smooth and almost leathery with age, leaves closing at night and in rainy weather; Flowers papilionaceous, yellow, borne upon the end of an axillary peduncle. After flowering, the forming-pod is, by the elongation of its stalk, pushed into the soil, beneath which it grows and ripens; Legume, or pod indehiscent, woody and veiny, one to four-seeded; Seed, with a reddish coat, the embryo with two large, fleshy cotyledons, and a very short, nearly straight, radicle. Figure 1 represents a portion of the Peanut plant.
The small-podded, or North Carolina Peanut, is not at all popular with pickers, because it takes a great many more to make a basketful, and, unless they are paid an extra price for picking this sort, they cannot make as good wages. Nor do our planters seem to like it very well, finding it more trouble to handle than the larger variety. Hence it is but little cultivated in Virginia.
The Peanut in its travels has also acquired a variety of names, such as ground-pea, earth-nut, goober or guber, and pindar. Also "currency," "cash," "credit," and other expressive titles. Of all these names, "Peanut" is the most generally used, but Ground-pea would be the more descriptive name.
An analysis made by Doctor Thomas Antisell, chemist to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and published in the Report of that Department about the year 1869, gives the following as the composition of the Peanut plant:
In one hundred parts of the husk and nut taken together
In one hundred parts of the husk and seed separated:
"The ash of the seed," it was stated by the same authority, "consists of salts wholly soluble in water, composed of the phosphates of alkalies, with traces of alkaline, chlorides, and sulphates. The ash of the husk differs, in consisting chiefly of common salt, phosphate of lime and magnesia."
The analysis of the as
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