217 



Edible Products' 



is that the roots run down to too great a depth, the nuts take longer to 

 ripen, are harder to harvest, and, unless the soil is very porous or thoroughly 

 well drained, they run the danger of destruction owing to an excess of moisture. 

 When the soil has been reduced to a good tilth, the land should be marked 

 off in rows four feet apart and crossrows be drawn two feet apart. The nuts 

 before planting must be divested of their shells. Two or three seeds are then 

 dropped at the intersections of the rows and covered with from 1 inch to 1\ 

 inches of soil— not more. In from ten days to a fortnight the young plants 

 will be up. Every miss should be replanted at the earliest possible moment. 

 The ground must then be kept thoroughly clean until the vines begin to 

 cover the intervening spaces. Next comes the time for laying by, the vines 

 having extended nearly half way across the rows. This is done by running a 

 mould board once in the middle, between the rows, and drawing the earth up 

 to the rows with the hoe, care being taken not to cover the vines and to 

 disturb their position as little as possible, as the nuts will now be forming* 

 It will be necessary also to guard against making the bed too high. Soon 

 after this the vines will cover the whole ground and choke every other 

 growth. 



The yellow pea-shaped flowers are produced in bunches of from five to 

 seven. After flowering, the flower stalk gradually bends down and forces its 

 point with the incipient seed pod into the earth, where it gradually swells 

 and ripens with about two nuts to each pod. When the vines have quite died 

 off, either naturally or after a frost, harvesting should begin. This work must 

 be done in dry weather. The vines are mown off or cut off with a sickle. 

 These may be used as fodder. The stems are drawn out by hand, the earth 

 is shaken off the nuts, and the bunches laid down near the row. Next day 

 they are laid out under cover on a straw platform, and in a fortnight afterwards 

 the nuts are stripped off. This method, however, is only adopted in countries 

 where labour is cheap. In Queensland the simplest and cheapest method of har- 

 vesting is to run the plough under the roots, turning the nuts uppermost. They 

 are then dealt with as described. At the fortnight's end, the nuts are either 

 separated from the haulms by hand, or, if the crop is large, by means of a machine 

 called Crocker's separator, which separates the nuts into three grades, the heaviest, 

 and consequently, the most unripe nuts being delivered into one compartment 

 and the ripest and lightest into another. This machine will grade from 15,000 

 to 20,000 nuts in a day. 



The next business is to thoroughly dry the nuts, for if not well dried 

 they will turn dark, musty, and lose 50 per cent of their value. A bushel of- 

 nuts weighs 22 lb., and the minimum price is 2d. per lb., or £18 per ton for 

 good, ripe, dry, bright-coloured nuts. The yield per acre ranges from 40 to 120 

 bushels per acre ; two bushels in the pod will plant one acre. The uses of the 

 peanut are numerous, but its chief value as a commercial product is the oil it 

 contains. The yield of oil is set down at' from 16 to 50 per cent. It is largely 

 used as an adulterant of olive, sesame, and coconut oils, whilst it possesses the 

 enormous advantage over olive oil in being the product of an annual plant instead 

 of requiring many years for the plant which produces it to mature. 



In the East Indies some 150,000 acres are devoted to peanut culture, whilst, 

 in the United States about 3,000,000 bushels annually are produced. There is a 

 large and ever-increasing demand for oil seeds all over the world, and also in 

 Australia, where there would be no difficulty in disposing of the crop. In 

 Barbados the average yield is 2,000 lb. of nuts per acre, and yields of 1,000 lb. 

 are not uncommon.— The Queensland Agricultural Journal. 



