14 



THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



The per-capita consumption of peanuts has just about doubled during 

 the past 20 years, and now amounts to more than 10 pounds per person. 

 Most of this increase has occurred since 1939 and is doubtless due in 

 some measure to extensive use by the armed forces during the war period, 

 though civilian use increased during the same period because of scarcity 

 of meat. However, during this same period an intensive advertising cam- 

 paign was carried on, stressing the food value of peanuts. This campaign 

 doubtless had considerable influence. An example of the information 

 used in this campaign is shown in table 4, where the nutritive value of 



Table 4. — Nutritive Value of One Pound of Selected Foods as Purchased. 



* Dry seed. 



peanuts is compared with that of four other common foods (8). Con- 

 tinued publication of such information can be expected to have a decided 

 influence upon the demand for peanuts and encourages the hope that the 

 per-capita consumption of peanuts and peanut products may continue to 

 increase rather than recede to the former level. 



Much money and efifort have been expended upon development of 

 new ways of introducing peanuts into the diet, utilizing the whole peanut 

 or the defatted peanut flour ; but none of these new items has yet become 

 important commercially. The important channels for disappearance of 

 the edible peanut stocks are shown in figure 4. 



