68 The Bulletin. 



known as a peanut-point, moulded by the plow-makers for this purpose. After 

 the plow come the shakers who take or lift the vines from the soil and shake a 

 large part of the dirt from the fruit and the vines. After the vines have lain 

 in the sun for several hours they are placed in a circle around the poles, set 

 upright in the ground. A slat (sometimes two slats) is nailed about ten or 

 twelve inches from the ground onto this pole tu prevent the peanuts from touching 

 the soil. The stack is started by placing the vines, pods pointing inward, in a 

 circle about this pole, the slat furnishing the starting point. When the stack 

 has reached a point where the top is difficult to reach by the stacker it is "drawn 

 in" and some of the vines or a bunch of grass tied around the pole to prevent 

 rain water from running down the pole. After the peanuts have remained in the 

 stack long enough to dry or cure out sufficiently to rattle in the hull, they are 

 ready to be picked from the vines, either by hand or by the different pickers 

 or threshers on the market for that purpose. Most of the Spanish crop is 

 threshed by the old-style peanut thresher. The great bulk of the larger varieties 

 are picked by machines of more recent invention. "The Benthall" picker and 

 "The Ferguson" picker are the two best known and most widely used in the 

 "Peanut Belt." Both of these machines are manufactured at Suffolk, Va. 



Peanuts are marketed by the grower in bags holding from 85 to 100 pounds, 

 according to the class and size of goods, and are sold by weight. 



The future of the peanut industry appears to be a bright one, especially as 

 their value as a food for stock, as well as a regular part of human diet, is 

 becoming better known. 



Any one writing to the National Department of Agriculture and to the North 

 Carolina Department can obtain a Bulletin from each, giving much valuable 

 information about the growing and marketing of peanuts. 



IMPROVED FARM METHODS AS PREVEMATIVE FOR INSECT PESTS 

 (ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD TO COTTO> AND CORN). 



FRANKLIN SHERMAN, JR.. ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Introducton. — In many counties in North Carolina the chief crops are cotton 

 and corn, these two being grown in rotation, or often not with any particular 

 reference to rotation. Cowpeas are commonly grown in the corn. 



Where the number of staple crops grown is thus confined to only two or three 

 it is evident that the areas devoted to each crop must be relatively large, hence 

 in many of our eastern and southeastern counties fields of cotton of 40 to 100 

 acres are not at all uncommon, and the areas devoted to corn are often nearly 

 as large. 



On these crops insect pests of many kinds do more or less injury each year, 

 but so large is the acreage involved and so low the margin of profit that it 

 becomes impracticable to adopt measures like spraying, dusting or plant-by-plant 

 inspection to seek out and destroy the offenders. On such staple crops, grown 

 in large areas, we must depend chiefly on methods which will lessen the proba- 

 bilitv of attack, or enable the crop to outgrow any slight injury which may be 

 inflicted. 



Therefore in this discussion I shall refer, not to methods which are directed 

 merely at the insects themselves, but to methods which stimulate and help the 

 crop anyway, and which at the same time have a detrimental effect on the insect 

 pests. 



1. Drainage. — In all parts of North Carolina there are lands which fail to 

 produce the crops of which they are capable from lack of drainage. It is not my 

 purpose to discuss how to drain lands, but I can say most positively that certain 

 pests like cut-worms, bud-worms in corn, and especially bill-bugs on corn, are 

 always worse on poorly-drained lands. If, therefore, a good system of drainage 

 will benefit our crops anyway, and will at the same time lessen the damage from 

 these pests, it becomes worth our while to consider it and put it in effect when 

 possible. 



2. Selection of Lands for Planting. — Of course we can not always have free 

 choice as to exactly where to plant our corn or our cotton — we have to fit these 



