View. 
peanuts has not kept pace with the increased demand, and 
there is little danger, for the present at least, of overstocking 
the market. Spanish peanuts can he grown for 2\ cents a 
pound, and when the general market becomes supplied the 
oil mills can handle the Burplus, making therefrom one of the 
line-t cooking oils that can he produced. The cake resulting 
from the manufacture of oil i- valuable for stock feeding and 
fertilizer. There is always the opportunity to convert pea- 
nuts into pork that will bring fancy juice-. The famous 
Smithfield ham- and bacon, which sell at from .'Id to 40 Cents 
a pound, are made from hogs that are partly fed on peanut-. 
All kinds of live stock will eat and thrive on peanuts and 
peanut hay. 
The peanut belongs to the same family of plants as do the 
Clovers, alfalfa, bean-, and peas, but has the peculiar habit 
of developing its seed underground instead of on top. as do 
most of the legumes. During the early days when peanuts 
were first cultivated it was thought necessary to cover the blos- 
soms with soil in order to secure well-filled pods. It is only 
necessary, however, that there should be a bed of loose soil 
surrounding the plants and they will then care for themselves. 
The blossoms of the peanut appear above ground, shooting 
out from where the leaf joins the stem, and after fertilization 
takes place the flower withers and the little stem or peg elon- 
gates and pushes down into the earth, where the pod develops. 
This habit of the peanut has an important bearing upon the 
production of the crop in that peanuts should be planted only 
upon loose, sandy soils, and the soil must be well cultivated 
and loose in order that the pegs may enter the soil and form 
pods. 
In common with other legumes the peanut has the power, 
through the agency of bacteria upon its roots, to draw the 
nitrogen from the air and not only use it for its own growth 
but to store it for the use of other plants as well. An illus- 
tration of this may be had by pulling up a peanut plant and 
noting the immense number of nitrogen-gathering nodules 
upon its roots. 
THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 
Peanuts thrive best on a rather loose, sandy loam soil, such 
as is found in abundance throughout the Southern States. 
The soil should be well drained, or what is ordinarilv termed a 
"warm" soil. Peanuts can be grown on the heavier alluvial 
soils, but are easier to cultivate and mature better on the 
