Legumes 



195 



shelled nuts and the shelled salted nuts are familiar to all. 

 Peanut-butter, a food manufactured from the kernels, has the 

 valuable property of not becoming rancid. In foreign countries 

 the oil is extracted from the kernels and is used as an article 

 of commerce. It has about the same uses as cottonseed oil. 

 The peanut cake which results from the extraction of the ail 

 is a valuable live-stock feed. In the United States the oil 

 industry has not been developed extensively, although the cot- 



FIG. 86. Virginia Bunch peanuts. 



tonseed oil mills are now beginning to crush some of the nuts 

 for southern farmers. 



In many sections the chief use of peanuts is as a live-stock 

 feed. Often seed are planted as a catch crop between the rows 

 of corn at the last cultivation. The corn is husked from the 

 standing stalks ahd cattle are turned into the field to forage for 

 the leaves of corn and the peanut vines. Later hogs are turned 

 into the fields to eat the peanuts. They will harvest them by 

 rooting them from the ground. When peanuts are grown for 

 market, the vines are useful as forage. Their feeding value 

 is about equal to that of clover hay. 



