Edible Products- 



232 



[April 1907. 



The seeds are set by hand on the ridge, a bushel to a bushel and a half of 

 pods (i.e., 24-36 lbs.) giving seed enough for one acre. The ridges should be 2i-3 feet 

 apart, and, when the plough has prepared them, an ingeniously simple machine 

 known as the " dotter " is run along each pair of ridges before the hands, marking 

 by means of spikes on its wheels the spot where each seed is to be set. The hands 

 following place a single seed into each hole at a depth of lh-2 inches, and cover it 

 with the foot. Within seven to ten days from planting the seedling appears at 

 the surface, and then any spots where failure to germinate has occurred are resown. 

 The after workings are ploughings and weedings, three or four in number ; in the 

 second ploughing the earth of the intervening space is thrown towards the plants 

 in order to help the pods to bury themselves. 



The crop is sown in May, or at times late in April or in June ; flowering 

 begins in July and lasts a month. The plant can stand a good deal of dry weather. 

 Harvesting is commenced in the end of September and continued through October. 

 A plough with a narrow mould-board is run along each side of the rows and the 

 soil round the plants loosened. Then the vines are lifted by hand, shaken free of 

 earth, and left for a day or two to wither. After this the plants are placed round 

 stakes into small shocks, under, and often also over, which is laid a board as 

 protection from the moisture of the soil or from rain. Thus left the pods are 

 cured in the air. The last process is to pick the nuts, a troublesome piece of work 

 done by hand, which is accompanied by grading and cleaning the pods for market. 

 There also exist factories which buy the pea-nuts, clean and grade them, and sell 

 them again. In doing this "pops," or empty pods, are removed. Such empty 

 pods are said to be most abundant when there is a lack of calcareous food in the 

 soil, or as an effect of dry weather. 



Pods which remain in the soil are picked out as far as possible on ploughing 

 the land, and hogs turned on to grub out and feed on what is left, lest the plant 

 become a tiresome weed in the next crop. The hay, too, is saved in as good con- 

 dition as may be for a food for animals. Modifications of this method are commonly 

 practised. At times the ridge system is forsaken, and planting done on the flat. 

 As is well known the relative advantages for the two systems depend chiefly on 

 the depth of the soil and amount of moisture available. Various mixed manures 

 are given ; and the distances between the rows varied with the variety chosen and 

 the fertility of the earth. Quite recently a little attention has been directed to the 

 culture on irrigated lands (see Bulletin Florida Agricultural Station, 26, 1899, p. 26), 

 but the results are not to hand. 



On land new to pea-nuts the crop is usually heavy, and the ridges are at 

 least three feet apart. After a few years under pea-nuts the growth becomes less 

 vigorous, and the rows may hardly meet at a distance of 2J feet. A striking 

 contrast to this is the custom in Gambia to sow the rows a foot apart. Here the 

 land is ploughed and the seed dibbled in on the ridge as in the States. The standing 

 crop is weeded, and ultimately ploughed up. In Angola, Monteiro tells us (op. cit., 

 p. 129) the ground for pea-nuts— good soil in a river valley a little way inland where 

 the comparatively arid coastal strip ceases— is cleared and the weeds burned ; then, 

 with a primitive little hoe, women stir the soil to the depth of a few inches, and 

 the seeds are dropped in and covered up. Put in the ground in October or Novem- 

 ber, the crop is not removed until July or August, though the nuts are ready to be 

 eaten green in April. 



In India care is taken to get the soil into a good state of tilth, and as in 

 the United States lime is regarded as a valuable manure. Subba Rao (I.e., p. 226) 

 says that silt containing lime to the extent of 22 per cent, was applied at the rate 

 oi 100 cart-loads per acre when the land of certain villages was first brought under 



