B. W. Jones

When to begin Harvesting.—We come now to the laborious and often difficult work of harvesting the peanut crop. We say difficult, for often rainy or other unpropitious weather at this period, makes it exceedingly hard to save the crop in good condition, and prevent the pods from becoming dark or spotted. Ordinarily, the harvesting should not begin so long as mild and growing weather continues, even though October may be far spent. It is important, of course, to get as many firm, matured pods on a vine as possible, and the longer the weather holds favorable for this, the more pods, as a rule, will there be.

If, however, the crop has been planted early, and the leaves begin to fall from the vines, it is better to start the plow and dig the crop at once. When the Peanut plant gets fully matured, it is very apt to begin to cast its leaves, especially on ground that has been planted in peanuts often before. After the leaves fall off, the vines are of very little value as hay, and as most planters consider them excellent provender, they make it a point to harvest the crop in time to secure good hay. For the same reason, effort is made to dig and shock the vines before a killing frost occurs. Frost spoils the vines for fodder, though it does no harm to the pods, unless it be for seed. Some suppose that seed taken from frost-bitten vines will not come up well.

In the latitude of Virginia the usual time for digging the peanut crop is the second and third weeks in October. That is, the great bulk of the crop is dug about this time, though some start the first week in that month, and others wait until the close, unless driven to start earlier by the weather. In rare cases, some planters dig by the twenty-fifth of September, but it is generally believed that all who start thus early lose more in weight and yield than they gain in time or price. Six or ten days of mild weather at this stage of the crop, will make an appreciable difference in the yield, and if the peanuts can remain in the ground until the latter part of October, there will be very few saps, or immature pods. But, in whatever latitude the planter may reside, the general rule should be, to dig before a killing frost occurs.

Mode of Harvesting.—In Virginia, the general practice is as follows: First, plow the peanuts with a point having a long, narrow wing, and a small mould-board, so that the vines will be loosened without having any earth thrown upon them. The plow passes along on both sides of the rows, just near enough for the wing to fairly reach the tap-root, which it severs. Care is taken to put the plow deep enough to pass under the pods without severing them from the vines. This is important, as most of the detached pods are lost, and if the work is slovenly done, the loss will be great.

Hands with pitchforks follow the plow, lift the vines from the loose soil, shake them well to get the earth off, and then lay them down, either singly or in small piles, to remain a day or two to wilt and cure in the sun. This is light work, and can be done rapidly, two hands being enough to keep up with one plow. If rain is feared, it is best to lay the vines down singly after shaking them, for, when in piles, if rain occurs, and the weather is warm, the pods are apt to speck and mildew before the vines can dry out. A rain falling on the pods after they are dug, and before they are shocked, does no harm, if the sun comes out soon to dry them before they can mildew.

Fig. 5.—SHOCK STANDING. Fig. 6.—SHOCK REMOVED.

Instead of leaving the vines on the ground a day or two to cure, many shock them up at once. If the vines are perfectly dry, this is as good a plan as any. But if the weather should be warm, and the vines are wet with dew or rain when put up, they will be sure to heat, and the pods will turn dark. In cold weather the vines may be shocked both green and wet without risk.

The method of shocking the Peanuts will be understood from figure 5, which represents a shock as it stands in the field. A shock as it is taken down for picking is shown in figure 6. The vines are first laid together in piles, about as much as one can handily carry on the fork at one time, three rows being put in one. The stakes, which have been previously prepared, are then set in the ground proper distances apart, and two billets of wood, four or five inches in diameter and two feet long, are placed beside each stake to keep the vines off the ground. A handful of vines is then laid, pods up, on one side of the stake for a bed, and the same on the other side. After this the vines are put on, pods down. The first are inverted to keep the pods off the ground, though this is a matter of trifling importance, if the billets of wood are large enough. The successive handfuls of vines are laid up with care, keeping the shock level, lapping the vines, and placing them on every side to make the work even. As the work progresses the vines may be pressed down with the hands, and the shocks are finished off round at top, the better to shed the water. No cap or covering for the shocks is used, though much would frequently be saved, could a cheap one be had. A board nailed on the top of the stakes would protect the top layer very much, and yet the planter who should adopt it would doubtless be laughed at.

A fast hand can put up fifty or sixty shocks a day, with a boy to bring up the vines and assist in planting the stakes. Some shockers use the fork to lay up the vines, especially toward the top. The shocks are put up one in a place wherever needed, so as to make the work convenient for the carrier. Some, however, put three or more shocks together, as suits their fancy, in which case fence rails are usually employed to build the shocks upon.

The above method is generally practised, but there are many variations in almost every detail. We have endeavored to give a clear idea of a safe method.

Why Cured in the Field.—Perhaps some reader unacquainted with the cultivation of the Peanut, may ask: Why all this trouble to shock and cure the crop in the field? Why not pick the pods from the vines as soon as they are dug, and cure the peanuts on scaffolds, or elsewhere, and cure the vines on the ground, like hay?

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.

There are also several species of field rats and mice, together with the domestic rats and mice that get into the shocks to feed on the pods, where they remain until disturbed by the pickers. Everything seems fond of the Peanut after it is made, and if the planter escapes the insect enemies in the summer, the exemption is more than offset by the numerous and voracious depredators of the fall and winter.

And against most of them, there is no effective remedy, the planter cannot watch his crop all the time, and traps are hardly worth using. It is true, something may be done with steel traps for such animals as the fox, raccoon, and squirrel. But for the rest, despatch in removing the crop from the field, is the only certain preventive. Even then the planter does not entirely escape, for rats and mice follow him within doors, and riot in luxurious living so long as a single shock remains undisturbed. Perhaps no crop the Southern farmer grows is subject to heavier or oftener repeated losses than the Peanut. Yet, despite it all, it is a crop that often pays very handsome returns. It has been, and is, the sheet anchor of many an East Virginia farmer, and if prices hold up, will continue to be, so long as there are lands here that will produce thirty bushels of peanuts to the acre. This is but the minimum; the maximum is not known; a hundred and thirty bushels per acre has been attained.

Detached Peanuts.—In the process of digging and shocking peanuts, many pods must necessarily become detached from the vines. Some of these remain in the soil, out of sight, and numbers more are scattered over the ground, from one side of the field to the other. If the vines are fully matured, and have changed color or shed their leaves, and especially if frost has touched them, the pods come off much more freely than if the vines are still green, or scarcely done growing. Generally, the detached pods are the best of the crop, being those first matured, and which are therefore solid and heavy.

Of course these peanuts must not be lost. Women and children are employed to pick them up at so much per bushel. If it is found that many pods remain in the ground, a cultivator or light plow is run along the rows to bring them in sight. In this way the most of the loose peanuts are saved. Still, numbers will be left in the ground. The planter is at no loss, however, to secure these also, which he does by turning his fattening hogs on the ground as soon as he can remove the crop from the field. Hogs are exceedingly fond of the Peanut, and as soon as they find them out, they will continue to root for them as long as one can be had. Frequently, every square yard of large fields, will be burrowed over by the hogs in their search for the detached peanuts. No crop the planter grows will fatten a hog so quickly as the Peanut. Thus in the harvesting of this beautiful and profitable crop, nothing is allowed to be lost.

Saving Seed Peanuts.—It now remains to say something of the method of saving seed peanuts. Every step in this process must have in view one principal point—keeping the pods from becoming the least heated, either in shock or in bulk. Perfect and continued ventilation must be secured. The vines should not be shocked while green, nor the pods kept in large bulk after being picked off. Neither should the vines be touched by frost, either before or after being dug.

It is customary to dig and shake the vines as usual, and leave them in the field four or five days, or a week, before they are either piled or shocked. In this time, if the weather is fair, the vines will be so nearly cured that not enough moisture will remain in them to create a heat, even in very warm weather, and they may then be shocked with perfect safety, after which they should remain in the field until thoroughly dry. Rain falling on the vines while they are lying in the field, does no harm, except it be to turn the pods a little dark, which circumstance makes no difference with seed peanuts.

When the seeds are picked off, keep them in baskets until ready to spread them in a cool, dry room, where they will be exposed to a free circulation of air. In no case should they be in bulk. Spread them thinly in some loft, where the air will reach them, and where they will be secure from rats and mice. They may be stored in sacks the same as for sale, and laid in an airy room to remain all winter. They should not be kept in a room where there is a stove, or one subject to currents of hot air.

These suggestions embody all that need be done to secure good seed. If peanuts are fully cured when picked off, and are not kept too close, they will prove good seed, unless there is some radical defect of the germ or vital powers. Keep them from heating, and they will germinate and grow as readily as corn. Every planter may, and should, save his own seed. According to the number of acres that he thinks of planting, let him provide two bushels of seed (or forty-four pounds in the hull), for each acre, and he will have enough and some to spare.