103 



and are then picked off by hand, the white nuts always. The red nuts 

 are sometimes threshed off by taking up bundles and beating them against 

 a rail or the side of a box. This latter plan greatly injures the nuts. Five 

 to six bushels of red peanuts can be picked off the vines in a day by a 

 nimbled-fingered person, but the picking of three to four bushels of the 

 white is considered a good day's work. Women and children are said to 

 be much more expert in this work than men. The price paid for picking 

 is about ten cents a bushel. After this they ought to be screened in a 

 cylinder so as to separate them from the dust and leaves and also for the 

 purpose of brightening the hulls by abrasion. After sunning they are put 

 in sacks containing four to five bushels. So much may be added to the 

 selling price of the peanut crop by proper cleaning and assorting that it 

 has been found profitable in all localities where many peanuts are grown 

 to erect great recleaning houses. These houses are four stories high. 

 The upper or fourth floor contains a large hopper into which the peanuts 

 as they are delivered by the farmers are poured. They run down through 

 pipes to the third floor, where they pass through a screen or cylinder and 

 by abrasion the nuts are cleaned and the hulls brightened. From the 

 cylinder the nuts are carried to the second floor, where they are passed 

 through a fan by which the light ones are blown out. The heavier ones 

 are caught on an endless belt passing longitudinally over the surface of a 

 long table. On both sides of the table employes, usually girls or boys, 

 stand and pick out all black or discolored nuts. At one end of the table 

 is a sizer, where the nuts are separated into three classes: Jumbos, or 

 fancy, which are very large nuts; No. 1 and No. 2. On the lower floor 

 all grades are caught and sacked. The puffs and black or discolored nuts 

 are shelled and sold to confectioners. The owners of the recleaning 

 establishments buy the nuts direct from the farmers and resell them on 

 the market after they have been cleaned and assorted. 



YIELD PER ACRE The weight of a bushel of. peanuts in Tennes- 

 see is twenty-three pounds; in Georgia twenty-eight; in North Carolina 

 and Virginia twenty-two pounds. The Tennessee peanuts are larger 

 than those of Georgia and smaller than those of North Carolina and Vir- 

 ginia. Of those raised in Tennessee, less than one-fourth are of the red 

 variety. The usual yield per acre is from thirty to fifty bushels, though 

 as high as 100 bushels are sometimes made. The white peanuts will make 

 from ten to twenty bushels per acre more than the red, but not being so 

 easily cultivated or gathered, they were until recently considered less 

 valuable as a crop. 



USES OF THE NUT The present consumption of peanuts by the 

 American people for eating purposes alone reaches 4,000,000 bushels. 

 This is largely in excess of what we produce. It is estimated that the 

 peanut crop of the world now amounts to 600,000,000 pounds or 26,087,000 

 bushels. Much of this product is used in the Old World for making oil, 

 which is regarded as an excellent substitute for olive oil, as it has an 

 agreeable taste and odor. The s-helled nuts will yield about 40 per cent, 

 of oil. It is said that the Tennessee nut yields an oil that is often used 

 and is highly esteemed for culinary purposes. Estimating that the hulls 

 of the peanuts make 6 per cent, by weight and that 40 per cent, of oil may 



