PEANUTS. 461 



Cultivation. This crop is easily cultivated in a climate favorable to its growth, while, 

 when well-manured, the yield is generally large in proportion to that of many other products. 

 The peanut is a plant not very exacting with respect to soil, if it be sufficiently dry, although 

 a rich soil is to be preferred. It thrives best in a sandy loam, which should be kept well 

 stirred, in order to be in a condition to permit the pods to enter it. A light-colored soil is 

 desirable where the crop is designed for market, as the color of the soil affects very materially 

 the color of the pods, and consequently the market price, although there may be no real 

 difference in the quality of the nut produced by such soils and those of a darker color. 



The stain of red clays and other dark soils cannot be removed from the pods even by 

 washing, while nuts with clean, light pods will bring considerably more per bushel than those 

 of a darker hue. Lime is one of the best fertilizers for this crop, but it should be used in 

 connection with compost or stable-manure. The soil should be plowed to the depth of about 

 four or five inches, and thoroughly harrowed, in order to render it as mellow as possible. A 

 practical cultivator of this crop in Virginia gives the following method : 



&quot; In choosing a site for planting, reference should be had to the crop of the previous 

 year. Peanuts require a clean soil. They will follow any hoed crop to advantage, with the 

 exception, perhaps, of sweet potatoes. Corn land is generally preferred. In tide-water 

 Virginia, much of the land was heavily marled in former years, and when this is the case, 

 an important, and perhaps the chief, requisite to success has been already provided. 



The peanut will not fruit well except in a calcareous soil. The vines may grow with the 

 greatest luxuriance, covering the whole ground, but, in the absence of lime or marl, the pods 

 do not fill; they turn out to be nothing more than what is popularly called pops. If, then, 

 the land has not been previously marled or limed, it will be necessary to apply, say, a hundred 

 and fifty bushels of marl, or fifty bushels of lime, to the acre. It is applied in either of 

 several ways, according to the convenience of the planter, and with about equally good effect. 

 If there is any choice, spreading broadcast is perhaps the best, to be done before the land is 

 plowed, in which case the quantity should be about fifty bushels per acre. A favorite mode, 

 where a large surface is to be planted, is to strew the lime in the furrow over which the bed 

 is to be raised for planting. In this case, a less quantity will answer by reason of its being 

 more concentrated say twenty bushels. Other planters, again, who are hurried in their 

 work, spread the lime over the beds after the crop is planted, at the rate of about thirty 

 bushels per acre. Either mode is attended with good success, but wherever it is practicable 

 to have a choice of land that has been sufficiently marled or limed in former years, and pre 

 served by judicious culture, the best results are found to follow. In such cases the yield not 

 unfrequently reaches a hundred bushels to the acre. The product ranges from the quantity 

 stated down to twenty-five or thirty bushels to the acre, according to the skill, or want of 

 skill, in the planter, a fair average of the whole being estimated at fifty bushels. 



Few persons make peanuts part of a system of rotation, but the preeminent success of a 

 gentleman who has followed the plan is worthy of special reference. The lot intended for 

 peanuts the following year is seeded to stock peas, and the vines plowed in some time in Sep 

 tember. The vines contain a great deal of vegetable matter that becomes thoroughly decom 

 posed by the time of planting the crop. When the season for planting is at hand, the ground 

 is re-plowed and laid off, and ten bushels of lime and a hundred and fifty to a hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds of superphosphate strewn in the furrows to be ridged over. The year 

 following peanuts, the land is planted in sweet-potatoes, with a liberal dressing of stable- 

 manure. The third year it is laid down in stock peas again, to be followed by peanuts, as 

 before, always repeating the lime and superphosphate. 



Having selected the ground, it is plowed in March or April to a depth not exceeding 

 four or five inches. The advantages of shallow culture will be apparent from the fact that 

 the peduncles continue to penetrate the earth until a firm bed is reached on which to deposit 

 29 



