UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



& BULLETIN No. 1096 



WASHINGTON, D. C. T August 12, 1922 



BY-PRODUCTS FROM CRUSHING PEANUTS. 



By J. B. Reed/ Assistant Chemist, Cattle Food Laboratory, Miscellaneous Division, 



Bureau of Chemistry. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Peanut crushing industry 1 



Crushing peanuts: 



Varieties used 2 



Processes 2 



Page. 



Products obtairied from crushing peanuts 4 



Definitions of peanut products 9 



Summary 11 



PEANUT-CRUSHING INDUSTRY. 



The popular idea seems to be that the peanut is marketed chiefly 

 in the roasted form. As a matter of fact, however, these nuts are used 

 principally in making salted peanuts, peanut butter, and confectioners' 

 and bakers' goods, and in the manufacture of oil and meal. The 

 peanut industry was of little commercial prominence until 1870, when 

 it began to grow gradually. By 1900 the quantities of peanuts raised 

 were increasing rapidly, and since 1915, when the crushing of peanuts 

 for oil and meal was undertaken on a commercial scale, the growth 

 of the peanut-crushing industry has been phenomenal. This growth 

 may be attributed to the fact that the peanut can to a large extent 

 take the place of cotton as a cash crop in regions seriously infested 

 with boll weevil. Short cotton crops have placed the planters and oil 

 millers in large cotton-producing areas in an extremely difficult posi- 

 tion. The planters suffered from being deprived of a cash crop and 

 the oil millers suffered from having heavy investments in oil miUs for 

 which there seemed to be no further use. The utilization of the 

 peanut for making oil and meal gave the planters a new cash crop 

 and enabled the millers to continue their operations. 



1 Acknowledgment is made to G. P. Walton and L. E. Bopst, of the Cattle Food Laboratory, for assist- 

 ance in the analytical work. 

 108517°— 21 



