=Insect Enemies.=--Fortunately for the planter of peanuts, there is scarcely an insect that does them any material harm. At least, such has been the case, so far, in Virginia. What subsequent years may bring, is, of course, unknown. But up to the present, no insect has ever caused any extensive injury to this crop. It is true that ants do sometimes destroy a few hills on certain soils, by sucking the cotyledons of the plant before it has attained any considerable size and strength. But this is, by no means, general. Even the voracious and ubiquitous Colorado Beetle manifests no taste for this plant, although it has had abundant opportunity to test its edible qualities. To the credit of insects generally, be it said, they are not omnivorous. =Effects of Cold.=--The effect of severe and prolonged cold on the Peanut plant in the early part of the season, is often quite manifest. Cool nights and cold rains are much dreaded, they cause the plants to turn yellow and look sickly. The vines make little or no growth, the leaves become spotted and curled, as if they had been touched by fire, and the whole plant gets into that unthrifty looking state denominated, in the local parlance of the planter, "the pouts." But let a few days of warm sun occur, and all is speedily changed. The plants assume a fresh and lively green, and their growth is now rapid until they reach maturity. =Effects of Drouth.=--A very dry spring would cause the Peanut to come up badly, and would, therefore, seriously affect the crop. Such an occurrence, however, is very rare in Virginia, as well as in the country generally, and is not regarded with much apprehension. If the plant is once well established in the soil, being tap-rooted, it can stand a good deal of dry weather. It takes a long period of extremely dry weather to materially injure this crop. Such a season did occur in 1883, and the consequence was a great many blasted pods and a short crop. Generally, moderately dry summers are looked upon with favor by the planter, inasmuch as seasons of this kind enable him to keep the crop clean of grass at much less cost. Just here we would repeat what we said in Chapter II, in relation to deep plowing preparatory to planting. With a soil deeply broken in the outset, the Peanut will withstand successfully any period of dry weather ever likely to occur in this country. It has been noticed that the crops that suffer the most from drouths are those planted on land not well prepared, or in orchards of growing trees, which necessarily extract a great deal of moisture from the soil. Even in a season as severe as that of 1883, peanuts planted on a deep, mellow soil out of the reach of trees, did well, and were well seeded and filled. Deep preparation of the soil, then, is a corrective of drouth for this crop, as well as for any other. With this simple precaution, no great apprehension need be entertained of the effects of dry weather.