r - 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
^B- BULLETIN No. 1096 ^K 
WASHINGTON, D. C. ▼ August 12, 1922 
BY-PRODUCTS FROM CRUSHING PEANUTS. 
By J. B. Reed/ Assistant Chemist, Cattle Food Laboratory, Miscellaneous Division, 
Bureau of Chemistry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Peanut crushing industry 1 
Crushing peanuts: 
Varieties used 2 
Processes 2 
Page. 
Products obtained from crushing peanuts 4 
Definitions of peanut products 9 
Summary 11 
PEANUT-CRUSHING INDUSTRY. 
The popular idea seems to be that the peanut is marketed chiefly 
in the roasted form. As a matter of fact, however, these nuts are used 
principally in making salted peanuts, peanut butter, and confectioners' 
and bakers' goods, and in the manufacture of oil and meal. The 
peanut industry was of little commercial prominence until 1870, when 
it began to grow gradually. By 1900 the quantities of peanuts raised 
v/ere increasing rapidly, and since 1915, when the crushing of peanuts 
for oil and meal was undertaken on a commercial scale, the growth 
of the peanut-crushing industry has been phenomenal. This growth 
may be attributed to the fact that the peanut can to a large extent 
take the place of cotton as a cash crop in regions seriously infested 
with boll weevil. Short cotton crops have placed the planters and oil 
millers in large cotton-producing areas in an extremely difficult posi- 
tion. The planters suffered from being deprived of a cash crop and 
the oil millers suffered from having heavy investments in oil mills for 
which there seemed to be no further use. The utilization of the 
peanut for making oil and meal gave the planters a new cash crop 
and enabled the millers to continue their operations. 
1 Acknowledgment is made to G. P. Walton and L. E. Bopst, of the Cattle Food Laboratory, for assist- 
ance in £he analytical work. 
108517°— 21 
