6 
BULLETIN 1401, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTTTRE 
general. Grain-thi^eshing machines with a special cylinder adapted 
to handling peanuts, are still in general use in the Southwest, and to a 
slight and decreasing extent in the southeastern tier of States. A 
carefully regulated cylinder-type threshing machine gives fair results 
in removing Spanish-type peanuts from the vines and leaves little 
trash with the pods. Usually, however, sufficient care is not shown 
in so adjusting the speed of the cylinder as to reduce trash and dirt 
to a minimum. A greater breakage of pods and kernels also occurs 
with a threshing machine than with a specially designed picker, 
thus increasing the percentage of splits or No. 2 peanuts. Kernels 
in cracked pods often become moldy and rancid. Further, although 
it is practically impossible for weevils to penetrate a sound, unbroken 
shell, broken pods offer an opportunity for weevil injury in storage. 
In consequence, many southeastern shellers decline to buy peanuts 
that have been threshed unless they can arrange to shell the stock 
I-'IG. 2. — A conmiercial peanut picker in operation. The pile at the left of the picture consists of 
vines and foreign material remaining after the pods were picked; the lumber at the extreme right 
is a portion of the stakes around which the vines were stacked and which are not usually removed 
until the stacks are brought to the picker 
before weevil injury is likely to occur. Breakage of the pods in the 
thresher is reduced to a minimum by proper feeding into the hopper 
and by properly regulating the speed of the cylinder. 
The large-podded varieties of peanuts tend to break badly in thresh- 
ing machines, and in Virginia and North Carolina the thresher type 
of machine has been rather generally replaced by patented picking 
machines. (See fig. 2.) In these machines the vines are dragged 
over a horizontal frame, on which is a wire netting. Springs separate 
the vines, allowing the nuts to catch in the netting with little break- 
age, while the vines are carried away on a belt conveyor. Many 
machines have recleaning attachments, designed to remove much of 
the dirt and trash adhering to the pods, and a fan which blows out 
sappy peanuts and trash. 
Hardly one-fifth of the farmers growing peanuts in Virginia and 
North Carolina own picking machines, and the work is usually done 
