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with a harrow. For white peanuts or the spreading variety the land is 

 checked off in rows two and one-half to three feet apart, and two kernels, 

 after being carefully hulled by hand, are dropped at the points of inter- 

 section of the furrows like corn and covered with a hoe to the depth of 

 one and one-half to two inches. In shelling the nuts care must be taken 

 not to break the delicate covering that surrounds the kernels, for this will 

 impair or totally destroy their vitality. If the land after planting should 

 become compacted by a hard rain, a light harrow should be run over it 

 when the land is dry enough to plow, in order to break the obstructing 

 crust, so that the very delicate shoot can make its way to the surface. 

 Red peanuts are planted in ridges like cotton. The rows are run off three 

 feet apart and four furrows thrown on these. The ridges thus made are 

 opened on top by a bull-tongue plow or coulter and the seed dropped at 

 intervals of eight to twelve inches apart and covered two inches deep by 

 a board like that employed for covering cotton seed, or it would be better 

 to procure a one-horse corn planter, adjusted so as to open the ridges to 

 the proper depth and to drop the kernels at the required intervals, and 

 at the same time, cover them. About two bushels and one-half in the 

 hqll are required to plant an acre. The brown millipede, the cutworm, 

 the wood mou.'^e. and the mole are all great enemies of the peanut when 

 just planted. Replanting should begin, if the plant does not appear above 

 ground, in ten days. 



FERTILIZERS — Many peanut-growers object to the use of any 

 manure whatever, but in this they undoubtedly commit an error. The 

 application of a large amount of stable manure would prove detrimental, 

 but in small quantities it is highly beneficial. The best fertilizer for the 

 peanut is an ammoniated superphosphate of lime with some potash. An 

 application of lime in its caustic state on other than limestone soils during 

 the fall previous tn planting would be beneficial. The peanut must have 

 lime, but not too much of it. The heavy limestone soils will produce a 

 great quantity of pops. No top-dressing of lime of any kind should be 

 made. The superphosphate and the nitrogenous manures may be 

 strewn in the furrows at the rate of 300 pounds to the acre. Ashes or 

 kainit will supply potash, and a greater amount than 150 pounds to the 

 acre is not necessary. Cottonseed meal and barnyard manure in limited 

 quantities are excellent fertilizers for this crop. Being a leguminous 

 plant the peanut has the power of e.xtracring nitrogen from the atmos- 

 phere 



CULTIVATION— If the land has been well prepared before the pea- 

 nuts are planted the after-cultivation is very simple and inexpensive. The 

 weeds should be kept down by using a narrow harrow or a double culti- 

 vator. Many growers use a one-horse turning plow and bar off the soil 

 from the peanuts when they first come up. Afterwards in the cultivation 

 of the white peanut this middle ridge is leveled down with a harrow or 

 double shovel. For the red or upright growers the dirt at the second 

 plowing is usually thrown back to them, if they have attained a height 

 great enough not to be covered up by the process. The peanut will thrive 

 with the same cultivation that is given to corn. Any cultivation is good 

 that will destroy the weeds and keep the land in good tilth, but it must 



