17 
View. 
points to inspect, purchase, and load the peanuts into cars as 
they are hauled in by the farmers. Another method is where 
the factory is represented in a town by a merchant who buys 
the peanuts from the farmers and stores them until wanted for 
shipment to the factory. 
WEIGHT OF PEANUTS. 
The unit in handling peanuts is the pound rather than the 
bushel or bag. The large Virginia peanuts weigh about 22 
pounds to the measured bushel, while the Spanish weigh about 
30 pounds to the bushel. Two and one-half cents a pound for 
farmers' stock would mean about 75 cents a bushel for Spanish, 
while 3J cents a pound, or 77 cents a bushel, would be the 
ruling price for Virginias. By using the pound as the unit in 
buying and selling peanuts the troublesome question of weight 
per bushel will be avoided. Peanuts grown in one section may 
weigh more to the bushel than those grown in another or even 
an adjoining territory. 
THE CLEANING FACTORY PROCESS. 
In the factory the peanuts are fanned and polished to remove 
the dirt, and are separated into a number of different grades. 47 
During the process they are all carefully picked over by hand 
and cleaned until the finished products would scarcely be 
recognized as coming from the rough stock that was shipped 
in by the farmer. All of the shelled or broken peas must be 
separated from the whole ones and worked into shelled stock 
of various grades. 
In the factories where the Spanish are handled the process 
is not so complicated, yet even here there is the same careful 
hand picking to remove inferior peas and refuse not taken out 
by the cleaning machinery. The peas are passed over a fan, 
then are shelled and the hulls blown out. Next the peas are 
run through a machine which separates the split or broken 
peas from the whole ones. The different grades are then run 
on what are termed picking belts beside which a large number 
of women are seated and pick out every inferior pea or particle 
of foreign matter. The refuse from a peanut factory often 
contains practically every waste or cast-off article that may 
be found on a farm. After the cleaning process is completed 
the peanuts are bagged in clean, new burlap bags and marked 
with a stencil showing the brand, grade, and name of the 
cleaner. 
