160 



THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



I600r 

 u 

 q: 

 o 

 < 



^ 1200 



I 

 if) 



5 800|- 



z 

 < 



O 400- 



_l 



WINTER COVER CROPS PRECEDING PEANUTS 



Courtesy North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station (IS) 



Figure 11. — The effect of different winter cover crops upon the yield of Virginia 

 Bunch peanuts. (3-year average). 



cover" plots. It is essential that peanut soils be in good physical condi- 

 tion because the pegs must penetrate the surface soil in order for nuts to 

 be formed. 



Effect of Methods of Harvesting Peanuts on Soil Depletion and 

 Growth of Succeeding Crops 



A large percentage of the peanuts grow^n in the United States is har- 

 vested for market by removing both nuts and vines from the soil. As dis- 

 cussed previously, such a system of management is know^n to remove 

 large quantities of nutrients and to lower the productivity of the soil. In 

 some sections of the Southeast, the practice of harvesting the peanut crop 

 by grazing hogs (hogging-off) is followed. With such a practice most of 

 the nutrients are returned to the soil in the plant residues and animal 

 manures. Peanuts handled in this manner may serve as a soil-building 

 crop. 



Results of studies conducted at the Wiregrass Experiment Station in 

 Alabama with different cropping systems including hogged and dug pea- 

 nuts are shown in table 12. Peanuts planted continuously on the same 

 soil, unfertilized and harvested by hogs, were found to yield quite satis- 

 factorily ... as well, in fact, as those grown in rotation with fertilized 



