The Peanut Plant: Its Cultivation And UsesJones, B. W.
Science
The Peanut Plant: Its Cultivation And Uses
Jones, B. W.
Peanuts
Hands--women, children, or men, follow the dotter, dropping a seed in
each mark or depression, and carefully covering it with the foot, by
pressing enough soil into the hole to just fill it. The holes are made
one and a half to two inches deep, and the hands are cautioned not to
get the seed covered deeper than that. One inch is deep enough to plant,
if the soil is moist, but if quite dry the seed may be put deeper.
Proceeding in this way, covering first with one foot and then with the
other, the planters get on quite rapidly, although the hills are so near
together. The planting is not at all tedious after one gets the knack of
it, and is light and pleasant work. Some planters put two kernels
instead of one in each hill, to insure a stand, but this practice
increases the cost considerably, and is by no means general. After the
seeds are planted they are very slightly, if at all, above the common
level. In a week or ten days from the time of planting, the seeds will
begin to heave or crack the ground, which shows that the germ has
started, and greatly relieves the anxiety of the planter. Then, by
counting the number of signs in a hundred hills, the farmer readily
calculates what kind of a stand he will probably have.
=Fertilizers.=--We have already intimated that a calcareous soil is
indispensable to successful Peanut culture. If the soil is not
calcareous by nature, it must be made so artificially. Hence the proper
fertilizer to use is one that contains a large per cent. of lime in some
of its forms, as the carbonate, the phosphate, the nitrate, or the
sulphate, or the chloride of calcium. Recently, the sulphate of lime
(gypsum), has been employed, even on limed or marled land, and its use
has been attended with good results. Animal and nitrogenous manures are
not suited to the crop. Such fertilizers produce a heavy growth of
vines, but there will be no full, solid pods unless lime in some form is
also present. Marl has been found to be the one specific fertilizer for
the Peanut plant--better than any other form of lime; and the chief
element of value in marl has been shown to be the carbonate of lime.
Some Virginia marls contain as high as seventy-five or eighty per cent.
of the carbonate, and all of them range over twenty-five or thirty per
cent. Now, marl is plentiful and cheap all along the Atlantic seaboard,
from New Jersey to Florida, the beds lying side by side of, and
intersecting, the very land that is the best adapted to the Peanut--a
rare and fortunate coincidence, that planters are learning to fully
appreciate. And were it not that the New Jersey land-owner finds it more
profitable to raise fruits and vegetables for the two great cities that
lie on either hand of him, even he would find the Peanut to be a paying
crop. With his warm, light sand and green marl, he could easily raise
them. I mention this as one of the possibilities of the Peanut, though
not likely to be realized for the reason named.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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