194 



Effective Farming 



South, where it grows well with Bermuda-grass. A mixture 

 of Bermuda-grass, bur clover, and Japan clover will furnish 

 a year-round pasture. When grown on rich land, Japan clover 

 will make a good hay crop, often yielding as high as two tons 

 an acre. 



Peanuts. The peanut is an important farm crop in cer- 

 tain sections of the South. A few counties in eastern North 



Carolina and southeastern 

 Virginia produce somewhat 

 over half of the commercial 

 crop of the United States. 

 Peanuts are grown, however, 

 to a limited extent in a wide 

 range of territory in the 

 South. The plant belongs 

 to the pea sub-family. It 

 bears its seed, the "nuts," 

 underground. The flowers 

 are borne on short stems and 

 when the petals fade the 

 stems elongate and turn 

 downward ; the pistil, which 

 is pointed, passes into the 

 soil where the ovary develops 



FIG. 85. -Base of peanut plant, showing into the pod j n cage the 

 the nuts. . 



pistil fails to penetrate the 



soil, no fruit will be formed. The pod contains from one to 

 four seeds. A root of a peanut plant with the stems and nuts 

 is shown in Fig. 85. There are two general types of these 

 nuts. One has large pods and either spreading or upright 

 vines ; the other has small pods and compact, upright vines. 

 Virginia Runner and Virginia Bunch (Fig. 86) are large- 

 podded varieties. The former has prostrate stems and the 

 latter upright stems. The Spanish is a small-podded variety. 

 The peanut is a valuable human food. The roasted un- 



