37 



Introduction. 



The peanut industry is growing rapidly in Alabama. 

 This rapid growth is coming as a result of the crop 

 diversification campaigns, the change from the one 

 crop system of cotton due to the invasion of the Mexi- 

 can cotton boll weevil, and the growing demand for 

 peanut oil and cake for stock feed and fertilizer. 



In soil and climate Alabama is well adapted to pea- 

 nuts. Its cottonseed oil mills are being converted into 

 peanut mills to manufacture oil and cake. The farmer 

 has most of the implements on hand needed for the 

 planting and culture of this crop. The additional 

 equipment most needed is a custom picker for each 

 community that grows any considerable amount of pea- 

 nuts. 



Variety Tests of Peanuts. 



Some of the experiments, from which the conclusions 

 contained in this bulletin were drawn, were made on 

 the Experiment Farm at Auburn. Most of them were 

 made on farms scattered throughout the State. These 

 latter tests constituted part of the work conducted 

 under the provisions of the Local Experiment Law. 

 Each experiment made aw^ay from Auburn was planned 

 and supervised by a Station representative. The soil, 

 fertilizer and cultural treatment for each variety in any 

 particular experiment was the same. The same strains 

 of seed peanuts ^vere supplied to every experimenter 

 making variety experiments in a given year. The 

 experimenter or a representative of the Station har- 

 vested plots of uniform size and reported the weight 

 of the nuts after they had been thoroughly dried. 



In all cases, the experiments were located on some 

 type of sandy soil, ranging from sandy loam, with clay 

 subsoil, to fine sand. A complete commercial fertilizer 

 was used under nearly all the experiments. 



Bulletin No. 193 contains full explanations of the 

 experiments. It contains tables of results which are 

 omitted in this condensed bulletin. 



Relative Yields of Varieties. 



For comparison, the yield of unhuUed nuts of Red 

 Spanish is taken as a basis, and hence this yield is 

 rated at 100 percent. Then each variety is compared 

 •with the Red Spanish, but only in those years in which 



