514 



PEANUT 



PEANUT 



PEANUT. Arachis hypogasa, Linn. Leguminosce. 

 (Earth-nut, Ground-nut, Ground-pea, Goober, 

 Pindar.) Figs- 735-740. 



By L. C. Corbett. 



Of the "nuts" produced in the United States, the 

 peanut is the best Icnown and most universally 

 used. It is perhaps most commonly 

 known as a roasted nut for eating, and. 



Fig. 735. Peanut. Sterile showy flower above; 

 forming pod of fertile flower below, 



in confections; but it has great impor- 

 tance as a soil -renovator and forage. 

 The product is really not a nut, however. 

 It is a ripened pod, with edible seeds, 

 of a plant very like the pea and bean. 



The peanut is annual, one foot or more 

 high, more or less creeping in habit. 

 The leaves are abruptly pinnate, with 

 two pairs of leaflets and no tendril. The flowers 

 are of two kinds: the male (staminate) showy, and 

 the female (pistillate) hidden or cleistogamous 

 flowers more or less clustered in the axils of the 

 leaves. The stamens are monadelphous, but the 

 alternate ones are short. The male flowers soon 

 wither and fall away, while the female flowers 

 begin to grow rapidly by the extension of the 

 receptacle and flower stem (stipe), soon curving 

 toward the ground, where they bury themselves and 

 ripen the pod entirely underground. 



History. 



Little was known of the history or culture of the 

 peanut outside of a comparatively circumscribed 

 area in southeastern Virginia prior to the Civil 

 war. Even now the means of its advent on this 

 territory is not clear. Circumstantial evidence 

 points to the early slave trade as the most likely 

 means by which the nut reached North America. 

 Peanuts were used as staple food for the mainte- 

 nance of slaves on the voyage across the Atlantic, 

 and it is likely that this traffic was the means of 

 bringing the peanut to this country early in its 

 colonial history. This idea is given additional 

 weight by the fact that the Carolina nut is very 

 different in size from the Virginia or Spanish nut 

 (Fig. 738) and is accredited an African origin. 

 The Virginia nut is probably of African origin also, 

 but from a different section of the country than 

 that from which the Carolina came. 



Up to the time of the elder De Candolle, the 

 native home of the peanut was in doubt. It had 

 been very generally disseminated and thoroughly 

 inured to a wide area of the earth's surface. 

 Many botanists held to an African origin for the 



while others accredited it to India and 

 South America. A careful investigation of the case 

 by De Candolle has indicated the natural habitat of 

 the peanut as Brazil, where six or seven other 

 closely allied species are found. If Arachis hypogcea 

 were not of American ancestry it would be the 

 only exception in the group, which seems improb- 

 able. 



Distribution and yield. 



Although the peanut was brought to this country 

 in colonial times, its extensive commercial' cultiva- 

 tion is of recent development. The knowledge of 

 the crop gained by the soldiers during the Virginia 

 campaigns did more than any other single cause 

 ^yto disseminate the culture throughout the thirty- 

 ;/ eight states from which it was reported in the last 

 census. It is now grown in commercial quantities 

 in eight states, but it is estimated that one-half 

 of the crop is produced in Virginia and North 

 Carolina, and that more than one-half of the total 

 n.arketed product of the United States is cleaned 

 and prepared for the trade in Petersburg, Suffolk 

 and Norfolk, in Virginia. 



The magnitude of the peanut industry can be 

 judged from the estimated crop of 1905, which is 

 placed at 14,000,000 bushels, of which Virginia 

 and North Carolina each produced about 4,000,000 

 bushels, Georgia about 2,000,000, with the re- 

 mainder scattered throughout the other southern 

 states. The value of the crop that is placed on the 

 market, exclusive of the part retained for planting 

 and for home consumption, is estimated at 

 $10,500,000, practically all of which represents an 

 expenditure for an article now classed as a luxury 

 or confection. 



Varieties. (Figs. 737, 738.) 



While seedsmen catalogue only two or three 

 varieties of peanuts, there are a number of sorts 

 which are distinct and are known by local names. 

 The so-called Virginia nut varies from a nut of 

 moderate size carrying two kernels to the pod, to 

 the immense jumbo nuts carrying three or more 

 kernels to the pod. The habit of the vine also 



Fig. 736. Peanut, showing procumbent stem and 

 buried pods. 



varies from the broad, decumbent, running plant 

 covering an area three or more feet in diameter to 

 the compact, upright habit of growth in the bush 

 type. In North Carolina there is a type of nut 



