18 
BULLETIN 1181, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
SPANISH PEANUTS. 
Although Spanish peanuts are grown generally over the State in 
a small way for feed, they are not grown at present for market except 
in the region adjacent to Texarkana in Miller County, Ark., and in 
Bowie County, Tex. The crop is grown in a small way with much 
hand and one-horse labor. (Fig. 14). < Man labor has been reduced, 
however, by eliminating the hoe entirely — a thing that farmers in 
other localities have not learned how to do. This is accomplished by 
throwing a very small furrow on top of the nuts when planted and 
then running a smoothing harrow across the rows as the nuts are 
coming up, which destroys all grass in the row if the work is done at 
the proper time. Sometimes a very small furrow is thrown over 
the young plants as soon as they are up, which checks the grass but 
does not check the peanuts. This furrow can be leveled with the 
harrow a little later. 
NUMBER 
OF 
DAYS 
45 
MONTHS 
JAN. FEB. MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV DEC 
NUMBER 
OF 
DAYS 
45 
M> 
\N LASC 
53 DA 
1 
jR 
rs 
40 
I 
40 
35 
35 
30 
30 
25 
■ 
25 
20 
■ 
20 
15 
15 
io 
« 
1 
10 
5 
m 
1 
1 
■ 
1 
M 
■ 
29 
HO 
RSE 
50 
LA 
DA 
30R 
YS 
25 
20 
20 
15 
■ 
15 
10 
m 
1 
IO 
(($ 
■ 
ll 
■ 
■ 
■ 
H 
■ 
5 
Fig. 14.— Labor on 10 acres of 
Spanish peanuts, Miller 
County. 
Co nditions.— Light, sandy, up- 
land soil; southwestern part of 
State; small farms operated by 
white farmers; preparation 
mainly with one-horse imple- 
ments; cultivation with one- 
horse and two-horse implements; 
no hoeing; harvest— turning out 
with plows, shaking dirt from 
vines, carrying to poles, and 
stacking in small stacks; threshed 
with machine thresher; haul to 
market, 5 miles; assumed yield, 
25 bushels per acre; seed, 1 to 1| 
bushels per acre; fertilizer rarely 
used; planted in May and early 
June; harvested in September. 
Prepare 
and plant. 
Cultivate. 
Harvest. 
Thresh. 
Market. 
Total. 
Before 
harvest. 
Harvest, 
thresh, 
and 
market. 
Man days 
11 
14 
11 
18 
22^ 
5 
6 
8 
5 
53 
50 
22 
32 
31 
Horse days 
18 
The method of harvesting will appear crude to those who use 
labor-saving machinery for their crops, but no method has yet been 
devised that takes the place of stacking the vines by hand in small, 
narrow stacks around poles with the nuts turned in and the tops out. 
This method requires much labor in September and conflicts some- 
what with cotton picking. If the hand labor could be reduced it 
would minimize that conflict. The crop is threshed with machine 
threshers in October and November and is usually marketed before 
the close of the year. The threshed straw is baled as it comes from 
the machine and is used for feed. Nearly a bale of 60 pounds of 
peanut straw is obtained for each bushel of nuts. 
