MARKETING PEANUTS 5 
by a little dry grass or other material as a protection from rain. A 
well-made peanut stack is shown in Figure 1 . Curing normally 
requires from four to six weeks. If the nuts are picked from the 
vines before being thoroughly cured the kernels may shrivel. As 
peanuts are generally sold by weight, shriveled peanuts result in loss 
in weight as well as in quality. Moreover, if picked when partly 
cured the kernels may mold in the pods. 7 
Peanut growers in Texas rarely use the stake method in curing. 
In that State, after the peanut vines are dug they are raked into 
windrows or forked into small piles about 2 feet high, and are cured 
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Fig. 1. — A well-made peanut stack, before settling has taken place. 
the weather 
Practically no pods are exposed to 
in the open without protection from the weather. To some extent 
this method is used in the Southeastern States for curing Runners. 
Peanuts so cured may be expected to have a high percentage of 
weather-damaged kernels. Further, as they are often not picked as 
soon as they are cured, and since many of the pods lie on the ground, 
a higher percentage of sprouted nuts may be looked for than with 
shock-cured vines, thus lowering the quality and grade of the crop. 
PICKING OR THRESHING 
Picking the pods from the vines was once done entirely by hand 
with negro labor. Now the use of machines to remove the pods is 
7 For details of harvesting see Farmers' Bulletin 1127, Peanut growing for profit, by W. R. Beattie, 
pp. 15, illus. 1920. 
