Peanut Soap.—If a fair article of soap can be made of corn shucks, as was done in the South during the late war, then there can be no doubt that a better quality can be made from Peanuts. Surely a vegetable product containing such a large per-centage of oil, would be easily acted upon by lye. The writer has not experimented in this direction, but we hear of some who have tried it, and who say they have made a good and serviceable soap from the kernels of the Peanut without the addition of other oil or grease. We have no doubt but very good soap may be made from the Peanut, but whether the manufacture of such an article would be profitable at present prices, is another question. Perhaps for ordinary laundry soap it would not, but for the higher grades of toilet soap it might be. Here is a field for experiment, and yet we mention this use, as well as those of bread-making and coffee from the same article, as one of the possibilities of this plant, rather than a result to be looked for in the near future, if at all. It is well that manufacturers, and all others, should know what is capable of being done with this promising product. The more we can multiply the uses of any product of our farms, the wider will be the demand for it, and this is what the farmers desire.
Peanuts as Feed for Stock.—This is a use for the Peanut, about which we can speak with confidence, and from experience. We now refer to the peanut pod, including, of course, the kernel, and not the vine or hay. Every kind of stock, horses, cows, sheep, hogs, and poultry, are exceedingly fond of the Peanut, and will leave any other food to partake of it. Cows, horses, and sheep eat the whole pod, hull and kernel together. Hogs and poultry (except turkeys) reject the hull, eating the kernel only. Turkeys, as a rule, swallow the pod whole, and a real live turkey can hide away quite a quantity of the nuts in a short time, if allowed free access to them. In fact, all animals do not seem to know when they have enough of this food. All stock fattens readily on them. The hog will lay on flesh faster on a diet of peanuts, than on corn, potatoes, or any other product with which the writer is acquainted. The poorest scrub of a hog, turned into a peanut field, after the crop is removed, and where he can get nothing but the pods he may find by rooting for them, will change his appearance in three days, and in a week, will be so much improved as hardly to be recognized as the same animal. As a pork producer we believe that the Peanut has not its superior in any clime or country. It is a thorough fat-former. Poultry intended for laying should be sparingly fed with it.
But we would not leave this subject without a grain of caution. While all stock fattens rapidly on the Peanut, it must be confessed that the fat is not always of the best quality. It is less firm and more oily than the fat derived from Indian corn, nor will the lard from hogs fattened upon peanuts show that pearly white and flaky appearance, which is the marked characteristic of pure lard made from corn. For this reason, most planters in the peanut belt, feed their peanut-fed hogs on corn only for two or three weeks before killing them. This is done to make the lard firm and white, and in this manner, good pork and lard are produced at only a trifling cost. The hogs get nearly fat from the detached peanuts left in the field, and which otherwise would be lost. In this way the peanut-planter derives a very important benefit from this crop, apart from its value as a source of ready money. Were there no other use for the peanut, it would still pay well to raise it for making pork. In this case, the planting and cultivation would be the sole cost, as the animals would do all the harvesting. A very small field would fatten quite a number of hogs. Poultry intended for market, might well be fed on Peanuts, instead of corn or oats. The fowls would fatten faster and at less cost. In fact, we believe it would be economical to buy peanuts at ruling prices for fattening stock, especially old stock.
Peanut Hay.—If dug and cured before frost touches them, and before the leaves fall to any great extent, peanut vines make a very good provender for all stock. Some say it is better than blade fodder for horses and mules, but we are not prepared to advance this extravagant claim for it. It is, however, certainly an excellent article of fodder for cattle, sheep, mules, and horses, and if many sap peanuts are left on the vines, stock that is not worked much, will need no other feed during the winter months to keep them in good condition.
Most planters, accordingly, make it an object to try to save the vines for hay, and aim to dig the crop before they are injured by frost. After a killing frost touches them, the vines are next to worthless as a feed. In fact, frost-bitten peanut vines are harmful, rather than beneficial, to stock, often causing colics, and endangering the life of a valuable horse or mule. Peanut vines, even the best of them, unharmed by frost, should not be fed very largely to horses. There is always a good deal of grit and dust upon them, and much of this taken into the stomach, cannot but be more or less harmful to the animals.
And yet, despite these few drawbacks, peanut hay has proved to be a valuable forage, and one that the peanut-planter could not well dispense with, inasmuch as so many do not make enough of other forage to serve them, and must, therefore, depend on the peanut crop to help them out. Thus the planter is benefited in several ways through this crop. He gets a valuable staple to sell, and one that always commands the ready cash, he fattens his hogs on the pods left in the ground, and he secures a large amount of very good hay in the vines. Thus he is doubly benefited, and no matter how low the price of peanuts may be, the farmer does not, and cannot, ordinarily, lose much on the cultivation of this great crop. If he does not risk too much on commercial fertilizers, which no planter of this crop ever should do, he runs little risk of suffering any crushing loss thereon.
Such is a brief but connected view of the Peanut crop from the time of planting the seed, to its sale and manufacture. The views and practice here advanced are all from original sources. We have not drawn upon any other writer for any part of this treatise. Indeed, save a few short articles scattered through the agricultural press of the past ten or fifteen years, we know of no source from whence material could be derived. So far as we are aware, this is the pioneer work in America on the Peanut plant. This being the case, it must, of course, be quite defective. We might easily have made it a larger book, and perhaps some few years hence, when the field and subject shall have enlarged, it will be found desirable to revise and enlarge this treatise. For the present, we must be satisfied with smaller things, and remain content with a few practical directions rather than an elaborate work. Until that time, if it comes at all, we lay aside the pen, and turn our hands (as it has been our wont to do during the past few weeks) to actual labors in connection with the Peanut plant.