Edible Products. 



234 



[April 1907. 



annual planting'of nuts on the same land, the complete removal of all the vegetation 

 from the land, and the failure to replenish the soil by means of fertilisers— has been 

 a great factor in reducing the profits of the crop, so that now instead of an average 

 of 50 bushels per acre, with frequent yields of over 100 bushels, the average is not 

 over 20 bushels, while the cost of cultivation has been but slightly reduced." 

 Undoubtedly A rachis hypogcea is a most exhausting crop. Cultivators in America 

 knew long ago that their second crop was less vigorous than the first aud drew the 

 rows closer together ; but the exhaustion of the soil has been allowed to reach the 

 extreme above depicted. Under these conditions the trade is maintained as it is, 

 chiefly by the tax on imported nuts. 



The yields obtained in the United States are far exceeded under irrigation 

 in the tropics. Subba Rao gives the upper limit for Madras as 5,000 lbs. to the acre 

 on unirrigated land, but the most common yields ranged between 180 and 720 lbs. 

 i.e., 7*5-30 bushels. 



In Sender's Tropische Agrikultur (2nd ed. ii., p. 461) the yield in the Argen- 

 tine is given as about 1,250 lbs. to the acre. 



Holtze obtained at Port Darwin in North Australia 3,024 lbs. to the acre 

 (Mueller, Select Extra-trop. PL), Paillieux and Bois (Potager d'un Gurieux, Paris, 

 1898, p. 32) give the yield in Senegal as 2,000 kilogrammes per hectare, i.e., 1,780 lbs. 

 per acre. In his experiments in South Prance, mentioned earlier, M. Chaise obtained 

 thelaige yield of 2,200 kilogrammes per hectare or about 1,960 lbs. (Heuze, op. cit., 

 p. 139). 



Experiments have been tried in Florida with this plant on irrigated land, but 

 the yield is not known to us. One thing is very evident, that the size of the crop 

 depends largely upon intelligent cultivation. The yield of haulms per acre is given 

 by Subba Rao(£. e., p. 275) as one ton per acre, by Handy for the United States as 1-2 

 tons per acre. 



Concluding Remarks. 

 We have followed the history of Arachis hypogcea from its discovery by 

 the early colonists of the New World to the present time, and have seen reason for 

 tracing its appearance in Africa to the Portuguese, who traded on the Guinea Coast ; 

 we have noted its early and obscure history in Asia, and have seen how widely it is 

 now acclimatised, and what a great part of the world is capable of producing crops 

 of it ; even in Central Europe this is possible. 



Then, when the scarcity of olive oil demanded a substitute, France holding 

 the chief trade in oil-seeds not only came forward as the market for ground-nuts, but 

 her settlements obtained the export trade, and Gambia, Senegal, Pondicherry, and 

 in a measure Algiers, prospered by it. Our neighbouring English possessions were 

 not long in following suit, British Gambia gaining by proximity to the French 

 settlements, and Madras profiting through Pondicherry. The rapid growth of 

 the trade was most marked. At first West Africa supplied Europe, then nuts 

 came from India, and even China and the Argentine, and now in addition there is 

 an increasing importation from the Mozambiaue coast ; the latter grows, while 

 India withdraws from the competition. 



Marseilles, from the first the chief market for ground-nuts in Europe, and 

 still chief , despite the growing trade of Hamburg, London, Rotterdam, and Genoa, 

 is undergoing a crisis in its oil trade, and this, becavise of its connection with the 

 decreased production of India (see page 186), demands our attention. 



Since 1894 the importations of oil-seeds by Marseilles have fallen ; in 1897 

 41 per cent (16 out of 39) of the oil mills of the city were closed, and the report for 1898 

 (Compte Rendu de la situation commerciale, p, 77) tells us that the condition of the 



