548 



FARM, ORCHARD, DAIRY AND GARDEN. 



solid white curd is separated from the 

 whey. 



PEANUT, Culture, Soil for.— Any soil 

 that can be put in a friable condition, 

 and kept in that state, will produce pea- 

 nuts ; but that which is best adapted to 

 their growth is a light, gray soil, without 

 being very sandy. The color of the pods 

 always partakes of the color of the soil ; 

 and as the brightest pods always bring 

 the most money, so the gray land is to 

 be preferred. When harvested they are 

 perfectly clean, scarcely a particle of soil 

 adhering to them. Not so with red or 

 chocolate-colored lands. They leave a 

 stain on the pods, of which they can- 

 not be divested even by washing — a 

 practice frequently resorted to for the 

 purpose of getting a fancy article. When 

 taken to market the bright nuts will com- 

 mand from ten to fifteen cents more per 

 bushel than the brown, though equal in 

 all other respects. The gray soil is there- 

 fore to be selected when there is freedom 

 of choice, but the brown soil, when of 

 the right texture, is equally productive. 



In choosing a sight for planting, refer- 

 ence 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 gen- 

 erally preferred. In tide-water Virginia 

 much of the land was heavily marled in 

 former years, and whenever this is the 

 case an important and perhaps the chief 

 requisite to success has been already pro- 

 vided. The peanut will not fruit except 

 on a calcareous soil. The vines may 

 grow with the greatest luxuriance, cov- 

 ering the whole ground, but in the ab- 

 sence 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. 

 The kind of lime chiefly used of late 

 years is burned oyster shells, which may 

 be had in abundance in all the large 

 towns. 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 

 to the 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 rea- 

 son 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 bush- 

 els to the acre. Either mode is attend- 

 ed 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 preserved by judi- 

 cious culture, the best results are found 

 to follow. In such cases the yield not 

 unfrequently reaches a hundred bushels 

 to the acre. Last year the writer was- 

 told by a planter of the highest charac- 

 ter, that on twelve acres of such land: 

 as has been just described he sold four- 

 teen hundred bushels of nuts of prime 

 quality, besides saving an ample supply 

 for seed. 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, of the plan- 

 ter — a fair average of the whole being es- 

 timated at fifty bushels. 



Few persons make peanuts part of a 

 regular system of rotation, but the pre- 

 eminent success of a gentleman who has. 

 followed the plan is worthy of special 

 reference. Mr. Henry M. Butts, of 

 Southampton County, Virginia, has for 

 years pursued the following course: The- 

 lot intended for peanuts, say next year, 

 has been seeded in stock peas this year, 

 the vines to be plowed in some time in 

 September. The vines afford a great 

 quantity of vegetable matter, which be- 

 comes thoroughly decomposed by the 

 time for planting the crop. When the 

 season for planting is at hand, the ground 

 is replowed and laid off, and ten bushels 

 of lime and a hundred and fifty to a 

 hundred and seventy-five pounds of su- 

 perphosphate strewn in the furrows to 

 be ridged over. The year following 

 peanuts the land is planted in sweet po- 

 tatoes, 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. The crops of 



