We answer, because the pods cure better in the shock than in any other way. They get dry sooner, and make heavier and brighter peanuts than could possibly be the case, were they gathered at once, and spread, even in very thin layers, on scaffolds to dry. Besides, as rain on the pods when they are about half cured, or during the process of curing, would be very harmful, it is found best to protect the pods by covering them in shock. They can get more air in shock than if spread on a scaffold, and a free circulation of air about them is important. A scaffold close enough to hold the pods would exclude the air in every direction, except from above. When shocks are put up well, the pods are very effectually protected, except a few on the top, and in about ten days are cured nice and bright, and ready to be picked off. The shocks may remain in the field many weeks, subject to repeated rains, without material injury. Of course rains of several days continuance would damage the peanuts more or less. It is best therefore, on this account, and because of the numerous depredators that prey upon the crop while it remains in the field, to house it as soon as sufficiently cured to render it certain the pods will not heat and spoil when in bulk. =Depredators.=--The creatures of the animal kingdom that levy their tax on the unwilling planter, and come in for a share--and often a large share--of the peanut crop, are of many kinds, and numerous in all. Of quadrupeds, the deer, fox, raccoon, squirrel, and sometimes even the dog, are more or less destructive; the raccoon, squirrel, and fox are particularly so, beginning their inroads early in the fall by scratching up the immature pods, and continuing their thefts daily and nightly as long as any remain in the field. In some localities, these animals are exceedingly annoying, and occasion great loss unless their depredations can be checked. Next to the animals named, birds are most destructive, while the peanuts are in shock. Such birds as the blue-jay, crow, partridge, yellow hammer, wild turkey, and blackbird, coming, as some of them do, not singly, but in companies and flocks of hundreds and thousands at a time, carry off vast quantities, unless the planter is always on the alert, gun in hand, ready to meet them at every turn. Near the James, and other large rivers, it is a common occurrence to see, not thousands only, but tens of thousands of blackbirds in a single field at one time. They often go in flocks covering acres on acres of ground, and with their ceaseless activity and endless trilling, present an appearance of which city-bred people can form no adequate idea. Of course they destroy a vast amount of peanuts in a short time, unless speedily driven off.