MARKETING PEANUTS * 75 
feeds to form a balanced ration. Experiments by the United States 
Department of Agriculture near Middlebury, Vt., have shown 31 
that peanut meal, mixed with coconut meal, can replace oats in the 
ration of young horses, and may be found advantageous to work 
horses after they have become accustomed to the mixture. 
Peanut cake is sometimes cracked into particles ranging in size 
from a pea to a hickory nut, and sold for feeding animals on open 
ranges. This cracked cake can be thrown on the ground without 
danger of serious trampling, whereas fine meal would have to be 
fed in a container. 
The percentage of peanut oil in peanut cake depends on the amount 
of pressure exerted and on the length of time the cake remains in 
the press. Proper cooking is also necessary if a low oil content is 
to be obtained. Commercially, the oil content usually runs 6 to 8 
per cent, averaging around 7 per cent. 
As a fertilizer, the value of peanut cake is based on the quantity 
of nitrogen it contains. A high-grade cake contains sufficient nitrogen 
to yield 9 per cent of ammonia by analysis, and transactions are 
usually made on that basis. Peanut meal not only ranks above 
cottonseed meal in ammonia and nitrogen content, but contains a 
small percentage each of available phosphoric acid and soluble 
potash. Peanut meal has such high food value, however, that 
feeding it first, and then spreading the resultant manure on the 
ground is far more economical than applying it directly to the ground 
as a fertilizer. 
PEANUT FLOUR 
The manufacture of peanut flour from the finer grades of peanut 
meal, ground from pressed kernels only, was given encouragement 
during the war as it afforded a very satisfactory supplement to 
wheat flour. Peanut flour is wholesome, palatable, and nutritious. 
It contains over 4 times as much protein, 8 times as much fat, and 
9 times as much mineral ingredients as white flour. 33 
In making bread with peanut flour it is customary to mix it with 
the wheat flour in the proportion of 2 or 3 to 10. The peanut oil 
in the flour lessens the quantity of shortening necessary and gives 
the bread a rich, nutty flavor. The chief objection to peanut flour 
is that it is liable to become weevily. Peanut flour is not manu- 
factured commercially at present to any extent. 
PEANUT HULLS 
As the presence of large quantities of peanut hulls in or around 
shelling plants adds materially to the fire hazards, shellers are careful 
to avoid any accumulation of these stocks. Formerly peanut hulls 
were a waste product and used chiefly for fuel, often being blown 
out of the shelling plant directly into the firebox of the mill, and 
most hulls are still burned. Three tons of peanut hulls are estimated 
to equal 1 ton of coal in fuel value. 
During the war several new uses were found for the hulls which 
increased their selling value. The most important was in connection 
with cleaning tin plate, and large quantities of ground hulls were 
31 Rommel G. M. and W. F. Hammond. A note on the feeding value of coconut and peanut meals for 
horses. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Anim. Indus. Circ. 168, 2 pp. 1911. 
3 2 Bailey H. S. and J. A. Le Clerc. The Deanut, a great American food. In U. S. Dept. Agr. Year- 
book 1917, pp. 289-301, illus. 1918. ^Yearbook separate 746}, 
