BULLETIN 1096, U. S. DEPARTMEXT OF AGKICULrURE. 
SHELLING PLANTS. 
Many mills run shelling plants in which the best nuts are separated 
to be marketed as shelled peanuts. The seconds are either pressed 
out separately or run in with the regular stock when the mill is 
running on stock peanuts in the usual way. The principle of the sheller 
is the same as that of the disk huUer (p. 2), but in addition it has 
attached to it screens, shakers, and fans, so that the meats come out 
almost entirely separated from the hulls. The machine is run to make 
as many of the meats as possible come out whole. 
PRODUCTS OBTAINED FROM CRUSHING PEANUTS. 
Some mills make feeds by grinding the peanut cake with peanut 
hulls, hay, cottonseed meal, cottonseed hulls, etc., with the idea of 
utilizing the hulls, which have a very low feeding value. It may be 
possible to use the hulls in this way if the product is not to be shipped 
very far, but their shipment for any great distance is not economical. 
Meals containing from 45 to 50 per cent of protein are produced 
but seldom placed on the market. Meals containing all the hulls, with 
a protein content of from 34 to 38 per cent, and meals containing 
an excess of hulls obtained from shelling plants or some other source 
are also found. Between these extremes are several grades. 
Some mills run almost entirely on seconds, which they buy from 
shelling plants, and on the germ (known to the trade as the heart) 
and skins, which they obtain from peanut-butter mills and peanut- 
confection establishments. A low-grade oil and a low-grade meal are 
thus obtained. Although peanut skins do not contain much oil 
originally, those from peanut-butter mills are high in oil, which is 
tried out from the meats and absorbed by the skins during the roast- 
ing. Such skins contain from 20 to 30 per cent of oil. Product^ 
obtained by crushing skins, germs, low-grade meats, etc., should nc 
be designated as peanut meal; they should be labeled to show the 
true character. 
Fertilizers are among the valuable products obtained from the 
crushing of peanuts. Peanut cake, however, is too valuable as a 
feed to be used directly as a fertilizer. The ideal thing would be, to 
feed all the peanut meal produced to animals, using the resulting 
manure for fertilizer. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to 
do this. For business reasons a great deal of peanut meal is sold to 
the planters, who use it directly for fertilizing purposes. Often it 
seems advisable for the oil millers to buy the peanuts from the 
planters, giving them the peanut meal as part payment. The planter 
brings in a load of peanuts and takes away a load of meal. In this 
way the working capital of the mill is reduced materially, while the 
