PEANUTS. 4.33 



The stacks are made around a pole planted in the ground 

 and rising some eight feet above the surface. A platform 

 made of old rails is laid down upon logs around the 

 pole, so as to protect the nuts and vines from the mould 

 and dampness of the ground. In stacking, the nuts should 

 be put on the inside next to the stack-pole,- but not so close 

 but that air can circulate freely from the bottom to the top 

 of the stack. To make the stack entirely secure, it should 

 have a capping of hay or corn fodder. Put up in this 

 manner the nuts will keep securely all the winter should it 

 be desired. 



The red nuts are more easily harvested than the white, 

 as they have but few root and the nuts adhere closely about 

 the stem. In loose land they may be pulled up without 

 running a furrow on each side of the row, though to do 

 this will make the work much easier. 



Usually the nuts are allowed to stand in the stacks about 

 four weeks, and are then picked off by hand, the white al- 

 ways, the red sometimes being threshed off by taking up 

 bundles and beating against a rail or the side of a box. 

 This latter plan greatly injures the peanuts. Five te 

 •ix bushels of red peanuts can be picked off the vines in 

 a day by a nimble fingered hand, but the picking of three 

 to four bushels of the white is considered a good days work. 

 Women and children are said to be much more expert in 

 picking off the peanuts than men. The price paid for pick- 

 ing is about ten cents per bushel. After this they ought to 

 be screened in a cylinder so as to separate them from 

 the dust and leaves, and also for the purpose of brightening 

 the hulls by abrasion against one other. After sunning 

 they are put in sacks containing four to five bushels. 



The weight of a bushel of peanuts in Tennessee, is 23 

 pounds ; in Georgia 28 ; in North Carolina and Virginia 

 22 pounds. The Tennessee peanuts are larger than those 

 of Georgia^ and smaller than those of North Carolina and 

 Virginia. Of those. raised in Tennessee fully three-fourths 

 28 



