"After the vines blossom," continued Bert, "a very strange thing happens."
"What is it?" asked Harry.
"The flower stalks bend downward and push themselves right into the soil, and on these the pods develop. If the stalks do not enter the earth within a few hours after the flowers fall, they die."
Harry now watched the plowing. The plows were drawn up and down the rows and ran directly under the vines, lifting them out of the soil. After they had been plowed out about two hours, men took them upon pitchforks and piled them up. Harry noticed that some of the piles were covered with corn fodder, and asked why this was. Bert told him that it was to keep out the rain.
"What happens to the nuts after the vines have been piled up?" said Harry.
"They remain in the piles fifteen or twenty days, and are then spread out on the ground or hauled to the barn, where the nuts are picked off," answered Bert. "Sometimes they are picked by hand and sometimes by machinery. Let us go to the lower field; we have an earlier variety there, and the nuts are being picked now."
They found men, women, and children picking the pods one by one and dropping them into baskets. These were emptied into sacks. Harry tried to lift one of these, and was surprised to find it so heavy. Bert told him that it weighed about one hundred pounds.
"Do you burn the vines after the nuts are picked?" asked Harry.
"No," said Bert, "they are fed to the cattle. We call the vines peanut hay."
Bert explained that his father sold the sacks of nuts to the factory, where they were cleaned and sorted.