2 CIRCULAR 952, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ment of Agriculture. 3 In these studies, carried out over a period of 



3 years, palat ability evaluations and chemical analyses for BHC were 

 made on peanuts that followed BHC-treated cotton, both on com- 

 mercial fields and on experimental plots of known history with respect 

 to prior exposure to insecticides. Soil samples, taken from plots and 

 fields in which the peanuts grew, were also chemically assayed for 

 BHC residues. 



MATERIALS 



1950 Samples 



Peanuts. — Eighty-two samples of peanuts were collected in 1950 

 by the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine from fields pre- 

 viously planted to cotton and located in four of the principal cotton- 

 producing areas. The samples included Spanish from Georgia, Run- 

 ner from Georgia and Alabama, and Virginia Bunch from North 

 Carolina and South Carolina. These are referred to in this publica- 

 tion as ''commercial samples." Samples of the peanuts grown on 

 fields reported as previously used for cotton dusted with a BHC 

 insecticide are designated as "treated," and those grown on fields not 

 so used as "untreated." The standard 3-5-40 dust used contained 

 3 percent of the gamma isomer of BHC (present as approximately 23 

 percent of 13 percent gamma technical BHC), 5 percent of DDT, and 

 40 percent of sulfur and was applied directly to the cotton plants. 

 The approximate percentage isomeric composition of the technical 

 BHC was: Gamma, 13; alpha, 65; beta, 10; and delta, 9; with 3 

 percent of other chlorinated materials. Dustings varied widely as to 

 amount and frequency of application. 



In addition to the commercial samples, the Department supplied 

 its own control samples: Spanish from Texas, Runner from Alabama, 

 and Virginia Bunch from Virginia, grown cooperatively by State 

 agricultural experiment stations under standard conditions in soils 

 known to have had no prior application of BHC. 



The 82 commercial samples varied in size, method and degree of 

 curing, and amount of weather damage. The distribution by variety 

 was: Spanish, 14; Runner, 38; and Virginia Bunch, 30. About one- 

 fifth (16) were reported as "untreated." Sixty-four were from fields 

 reported as "treated" in the previous year, 1949 ; in a few cases the fields 

 had also been treated in 1948 and 1947. One sample was reported as 

 "treated" in 1948 only, and the remaining sample was from peanuts 

 interplanted in 1950 with BHC-treated cotton. 



Soils. — Soil samples were taken from 39 of the fields from which 

 peanut samples were obtained in 1950. 



1951 Samples 



Peanuts. — The nature of the samples collected in 1950 was such 

 that flavor of the peanuts tested may have been affected by several 



3 Since the research reported in this publication was performed, a reorganization 

 of the Department of Agriculture has changed the affiliations and names of the 

 various cooperators. The units of the former Bureau of Entomology and Plant 

 Quarantine, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, and 

 the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics concerned with these 

 studies are now parts of the Entomology Research Branch, the Horticultural 

 Crops Research Branch, and the Human Nutrition Research Branch, respectively, 

 all of the Agricultural Research Service. The part of the former Production and 

 Marketing Administration that cooperated in this work is now part of the Agri- 

 cultural Marketing Service. 



