PEANUT 481 



460. Harvesting. — The principal harvesting season is 

 the months of September and October. Peanuts for mar- 

 ket or for seed should be dug before frost. They are 

 ready for harvesting as soon as the pods about the base 

 of the plant show a tendency to shed, or easily become 

 detached from the -vine. Harvesting may be done in a 

 varietj' of ways. The usual method is to remove the 

 moldboard from a turn-plow and run the share under the 

 row on each side at a sufficient depth not to sever the pods 

 from the branches. The side from which the moldboard 

 has been removed is kept next to the row. 



Sometimes a special blade is attached to the plow in 

 such a way as to run under the line of plants. The plants 

 are then lifted by hand or by means of forks and thrown 

 into small piles on every third row. They are stacked, 

 usually on the same day as dug, and before the plants 

 have thoroughly dried. The stacks are as slender as 

 possible and only about five feet high (Fig. 206). They 

 are made around poles seven feet long, driven securely 

 into the ground. The tops are turned outward and 

 the nuts inward, so as to protect the latter from rain, 

 dew, and sunshine, and from the attacks of birds and 

 other animals. Before making the stack, a few short 

 poles are placed on the ground so as to keep the nuts 

 from resting on the latter ; a httle space for ventila- 

 tion is left around each stack-pole. The stack is capped 

 Tv-ith grass, hay, or other material suitable for shedding 

 water. 



461. Yields of peanuts. — At the branch Experiment 

 Station at Newport, Arkansas, a j-ield of 172 bushels per 

 acre was made hy planting Spanish peanuts 4 inches apart 



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