MARKETING PEANUTS 77 
nuts. When the price of peanuts is low in the fall and hogs are com- 
paratively high, many other growers harvest their crop by hogging-off 
the nuts and either marketing the vines as hay or grazing them off 
with cattle. 
In sections where peanuts are intended for forage purposes they 
are usually planted between rows of corn. When the corn has been 
harvested cattle are turned in to eat the fodder and vines while hogs 
fatten on the peanuts. The combination of cattle and hogs is also 
the best method for disposing of the crop when peanuts are planted 
alone for fodder. This method of harvesting is practicable only when 
the farms are properly fenced. When peanuts are hogged-off, most 
of the nitrogen that is stored in nodules on the roots remains in the 
soil. 
By comparing the relative prices paid for peanuts and hogs and 
taking into consideration the cost of harvesting and picking the pea- 
nuts, a farmer can readily determine at the beginning of the season 
whether or not it will pay him to dig his crop for the nuts. 
Hogs are often turned into the peanut fields after harvesting to 
clean up the pods left in the ground. When the Spanish variety is 
dug at the proper time the quantity of pods to be secured in this way 
is so small as to render the practice unprofitable. If Spanish peanuts 
are left too long before harvesting, however, many pods will break 
off and remain in the ground. Hogs can obtain considerable feed 
from fields where Virginia- type peanuts have been grown; and so 
many Georgia Runner peanuts pull free from the vines when they 
are being dug that hogs can be turned with profit into the fields after 
the Runner crop has been harvested. 
Peanut-fed pork and pork products are usually of a softer texture 
than corn-fed pork, and for this reason hogs fed chiefly on peanuts 
usually sell for a somewhat lower price. Nevertheless, hams from 
hogs fed mainly on peanuts have become popular in several sections 
where many consider that they have a better flavor than hams from 
hogs fed strictly on corn. Although the demand for peanut-fed hams 
is limited, some advertised brands command a substantial premium 
over the corn-fed product. 
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 
Although the average consumer, buying his small sack of peanuts 
from a street vender or at a drug-store counter, thinks of peanuts, if 
he thinks of the matter at all, as being strictly a domestic product, 
the American peanut market has been materially influenced for many 
years by the importation of foreign-grown nuts. 33 Even as far back 
as the year ended June 30, 1910, a net total of 28,496,672 pounds of 
peanuts were brought into the United States, chiefly from Spain, 
France, and Japan. Receipts reached their highest point during the 
12 months ended June 30, 1920, when 131,724,212 pounds were 
imported, most of them grown in China, although many were reex- 
ported through Japan. Of this quantity 119,817,160 pounds were 
33 Data obtained from consular reports to the State Department; from reports by foreign representa- 
tives to the U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and from import and export statistics issued 
by that bureau; from investigators of the U. S. Tariff Commission; from leading importers on the Pacific 
coast, and by reading their files of correspondence; from The China Year Book, printed and published 
for H. G. W. Woodhead and H. T. M . Bell, at Tientsin, China; Trade Returns, issued by the Inspectorate 
General of Customs, Shanghai, China; statistical reports of the Japan Department of Agriculture and 
Commerce, etc. 
