gS«J AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM 



Vvinly would it be undertaken to naturalize the olVe 

 tree in the United Slatrs. It recuires, with the sahne 

 air ol' the sea, a milder, more equal and less humid di« 

 iwate. Little hope then would we have of procuring t© 

 ourselves so good an oil as that of the olive, if we did 

 ftot possess a precious fruit which in this country has not 

 yet been considered in this point of view. 



I know that the ground nut was a lew years since cul- 

 tivated in France, where they extract from it an excel- 

 lent and palatable oil. liaving found that fruit in the 

 market of Philadelphia, I endeavoured to know if it could 

 be substituted for the olive, and with a true satisifactiou 

 3 experienced that it answered all my expectations. 



The ground nut, which is the Lynchi ol the Pei-uvianSj 

 4he Mani of the Spaniards, and the Araquidna of the Bo- 

 tanists, grow s in Brazil, Surinam, and Peru.— However, 

 it appears not to be a native ol those couiitrios, but to 

 have been brought there from Africa by the negroes. It 

 is also found in the West Indies, in North and South Ca. 

 lolina. Undoubtedly it will equally succeed in Virginia, 

 Pennsylvania, ISew Jersey, the Western States, and 

 in all places where the sun mer season is constantly 

 •ivarm. If some differences are perceived in those se- 

 veral parts of the union, they result from that which may 

 exist in the intensit} and continuance of the heat which 

 prodigiously influence the quantity and quality of the 

 prodace. 



The plant does not require a fertile soil, it grows in 

 sandy grounds, even in those exhausted. It v. ants but 

 little laibour, the essential part of which consists in ope- 

 rations sufficiently reiterated to prevent the growth of 

 w eeds. 



The fruit is so well known in the United States as 

 not to require here a description ofit. A thin and fria- 

 ble husk unfolds two kernels covered with a pellicle or 

 pcricarpium w hich, as that of the almoud; is taken off by 

 immerbion in waini water. 



