The Peanut Plant: Its Cultivation And Uses

by B. W. Jones

Fig. 7.—VIRGINIA PEANUT CLEANING MACHINE.

But as the reader in other parts of the country, may desire to know something of the mode of cleaning peanuts at home, we give a description of the Virginia machine for this purpose. There is no patent on this machine, and any one may make it for himself. A cylinder (figure 7), as large as a flour barrel; is formed by nailing narrow slats of plank, to two circular pieces of timber. The slats are put a little way apart, but not far enough for the pods to slip through when the cylinder is turned. A piece of timber runs lengthwise, through the centre of the cylinder, the ends of this project about a foot, and serve as an axle on which to turn it. A crank is attached to one end or both ends of the axle. Two pieces of scantling are fastened together in the shape of an X, one for each end, and these are held upright by having pieces nailed on horizontally, from one to the other. Several slats on the cylinder are fastened together to make a door, and this is attached to the cylinder by hinges, and fastened with a button.

The peanuts are poured into the cylinder, two or three bushels at a time, and it is made to revolve slowly, until all the earth and litter has fallen out. The door is then opened, the peanuts turned out and bagged.

In bagging the peanuts, care should be taken to have the sacks well filled. They are estimated to hold four bushels each, and if properly filled, good solid peanuts will over-run a little, especially in the first part of the season, before they are thoroughly cured. As the sacks are being sewed up, the corners must be packed with peanuts as long as any more can be got in. For sewing up the sacks, the planter needs a large peanut-sack needle and twine made purposely for this business. Sacks cost the farmer, at the present, ten cents each, and generally the peanuts are sold by gross weight and nothing paid for the sacks. In some markets the sacks are paid for, and a pound deducted from the gross weight, for each sack. If the planter sells to a merchant near home, he seldom sews up the sacks, but ties them, and they are emptied and returned to him at the store.

Peanut "Factories."—It does not fall within our present plan to describe these establishments, any further than to give the reader, outside of the peanut belts, an idea of them. Formerly, many peanuts were sent into market without being properly assorted and cleaned, and it was found that, by assorting and re-cleaning them, a little margin of profit was left after paying expenses. One step led to another, and various appliances and machines were brought into requisition, until now, large buildings are devoted solely to the purpose of cleaning, assorting, and storing the peanuts. Some of these establishments employ many hands, both male and female, to clean, separate, and re-bag the peanuts ready for the trade.

Thus it has happened, that the business of cleaning peanuts has been taken out of the hands of the farmer, reduced to a system, and made a new industry. In fact, a division of labor; and now the merchant buys the peanuts of the planter just as they are picked, and the "factories," so-called, clean and assort them for the large buyers. Still, the merchant will pay more for Peanuts in nice order, and perhaps it would even now pay the farmer to properly clean and assort his crop before selling it.

The Best Markets.—A few years ago, the city of Norfolk was the sole market for the Virginia and North Carolina planter, and New York for the wholesale dealer. Later on, Wilmington, Petersburg, Richmond, and several of the smaller towns began to buy peanuts, until now, every village and trading centre throughout the whole peanut belt, has become the repository for the crop of its own immediate section. Every year, the market has been coming nearer and nearer to the planter, until now he finds it about as profitable to sell to the nearest country merchant, as to ship to town, and sometimes more so. Frequently, the country merchant becomes the agent of some large buyer, who furnishes the capital, and he buys all the peanuts he can, at figures very near the ruling market price. Of course, this works very much to the planter's benefit. He sees his crop weighed, he escapes the middleman, with all the attendant expenses, such as commissions, freight, etc., he sells for cash, and he does not have to wait several weeks for returns.

Under this state of affairs, the home market, or home buyer, becomes the best for the farmer. And with the constantly increasing demand, and close competition between buyers, the cleaning factories are also coming nearer the farmer, and already exist, or will soon exist, in each of the counties and sections where the Peanut is much grown. Thus the planters generally, will soon be enabled to sell directly to the cleaners, and the latter to the wholesale buyers. So the planter will get market prices, without the trouble of going to market. Perhaps the competition will eventually grow sharper still, until, not only will the peanuts be cleaned and bought at home, but will also be manufactured into oil, flour, and the other commercial forms, in the sections where they are grown. In everything, the tendency now is, to carry the factories to the raw material, and not the latter to the factories. It is not to be presumed that this crop will prove an exception.

Thus it is, that the farmer's work is being narrowed down, by the inevitable and beneficial law of the division of labor. The planter may now turn his attention wholly to the cultivation of the crop. How to order it, so as to realize the largest possible yield from the smallest possible areas, is now the problem before him. He finds given to his hands, a great and growing staple with great, and still unknown, possibilities, and he sees the demand becoming larger and more earnest, until now, the buyer comes to his very door, and puts down the ready cash for all of this crop that he has to sell.