BULLETIN 1478, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
EXPERIMENTS IN 1917 
One-half acre of soil, classified as Orangeburg sandy loam, with a 
yellow clay subsoil was set apart for the work in 1917. The land was 
plowed and fitted in accordance with standard practices and given an 
application of 500 pounds of ground limestone. Eight hundred 
pounds per acre of a mixed fertilizer containing 2 per cent nitrogen, 
8 per cent phosphoric acid, and 3 per cent potash was then applied 
and worked into the soil. 
The land was marked off into 10 one-twentieth-acre plots, each 
16^2 by 132 feet (Table 1), and planted to Improved Spanish peanuts. 
The seed was shelled and planted by hand on April 24, the spacing 
in the rows being determined by the use of a steel tape. 
Table 1. — Peanuts-pacing test in 1917 
[Plots one-twentieth of an acre. Crop harvested September 11; picked October 261 
Row and plot 
Spacing 
in rows 
Yield of 
peanuts 
per piot 
Yield ol 
hay 
per ploi 
Yield of 
peanuts 
per acre 
Yield o 
hay 
per acre 
Rows 2i 2 feet apart: 
Plot No. 1- 
Inches 
3 
6 
9 
12 
15 
3 
6 
9 
12 
15 
Pounds 
52.5 
47.0 
39.0 
35.0 
38.5 
43.5 
39.5 
39.0 
31.5 
26.0 
Pounds 
122.0 
155. 5 
112.5 
116.0 
105.0 
107.5 
104.5 
119.0 
119.0 
115.5 
Pounds 
1,050 
940 
780 
700 
770 
^70 
7i0 
780 
Pr.unds 
2,440 
3 110 
Plot No. 2 
Plot No. 3. 
Plot No. 4. 
Plot No. 5 
2,250 
2,320 
2, 100 
Rows 3 feet apart: 
Plot No. 6_ 
Plot No. 7. 
Plot No. 8 -— 
2,150 
2.090 
Plot No. 9, 
Plot No. 10 
630 2, 380 
520 9 --tin 
The cultivation and care of the crop was in accordance with the 
usual practices, including horse work supplemented by hand hoeing. 
Because of rainy weather during the latter portion of the season, 
weeds gained a start which interfered to some extent with the har- 
vesting of the crop. About midseason it was observed that the 
closer spaced plantings had a distinctly light or more yellowish cast 
of foliage, while the wider-spaced ones were darker green. This 
would seem to indicate that the quantity of plant food available is 
of importance in determining the proper spacing in the rows and to 
a lesser extent the distance between the rows. 
The 3-inch spacing in rows 2j/£ feet apart gave the highest yield of 
picked peanuts. A decided decrease in yield in rows the same dis- 
tance apart occurred where the spacing in the row was 6, 9, 12, or 15 
inches. In the rows 3 feet apart the yield from 3-inch spacing was 
highest, with a constant decrease in the yield of rows with other 
spacings. 
Yields of hay were but slightly affected by the distance between 
the rows or by the spacing of the plants in the rows. This result 
was expected, because the plants in the wider-spaced rows spread 
more, thereby making a greater growth than those which were more 
crowded. 
The average yield of peanuts per acre from the 2^-foot rows was 
848 pounds and from the 3-foot rows 718 pounds. The average yield 
of ha} 7 per acre from the 23^-foot rows and the 3-foot rows was 2,444 
and 2,262 pounds, respectively. 
