It requires as much judgment to market a crop well, as it does to raise and harvest it, and often more. Unfortunately, the majority of planters are sadly deficient in that knowledge of commercial life, which would make them masters of the situation. Too often they are bound by lien or mortgage, or else they have run up a heavy bill at the country store, and when the crop is made and ready for market, they are obliged to sell forthwith. Generally too, this is the very time when prices are lowest, and so the planter is obliged to part with the fruits of his labor at the most unfavorable rates, and allow the middlemen to pocket the profits. It is only by careful economy and prudent management, on the part of each planter for himself, that this evil is to be corrected. Without entering into the details of commercial affairs, we will endeavor to show the planter how he may go into market with his crop, prepared to command the best prices. To this end, it is essential that he have his crop in the best marketable condition, remembering that a good article always sells well.Picking off the Peanuts.—This part of the work, usually done by women and children, may make or spoil the sale of the entire crop. If stems are gathered with the pods, and good, bad, and indifferent are all lumped together, with leaves and trash thrown in for good measure, a great deal of assorting and cleaning will subsequently be required, or else the sale of the crop will be impaired to the extent of one or two cents to the pound. In picking, the stems should be rejected, and the saps and inferior pods, if gathered at all, be kept apart from the rest. Only the best, brightest, and soundest pods should go into the A, No. 1's, and these, if clean of earth and trash, will always bring top prices. The saps also will sell, at lower rates. It is the neglect of these few precautions that so sadly curtails the bill of sale of many a planter. If planters would offer pickers extra inducements for clean pods, this difficulty would, to a great extent, be obviated. When the same price is paid for all, without regard to the manner of picking, a premium is offered for slovenly work, and the careless get better paid than the painstaking.

In picking, the pops should be refused altogether, and the saps and very dark pods go by themselves. Many planters, however, leave the saps on the vines, saving the best only. The saps, however, will sell, either in pod or shelled, and if numerous, will more than pay for picking them. It is, therefore, so much gained. It must be confessed, however, that the presence of a good many saps on the vines, makes them much more valuable as feed.

Just here let us explain that "pops" are pods that have attained full size and firmness, but which are minus the seed. Dry weather, and the lack of calcareous manures in the soil, will cause many pops. "Saps" are immature pods, the last to form on the vine, and which might become good peanuts if they could have a longer period of growing weather. The presence of pops in the marketable peanuts is very detrimental to their sale, and hence should be carefully rejected in picking. Saps also are detrimental, but to a less extent than pops.

Price paid Pickers.—The price paid pickers varies somewhat from one season to another, according to the quality of the peanuts, and the market price received for them. Hands commonly board themselves, and receive so much per bushel for picking. Of late years, the price has stood pretty uniformly, at twelve to fifteen cents per bushel. The peanuts are either measured or weighed. If weighed, twenty-four pounds are counted as a bushel in the first part of the season, the extra two pounds being taken to make up for the subsequent loss in weight. If a hand is boarded by the owner of the crop, he gets but ten cents a bushel for picking. A fast hand will pick from four to six bushels a day, the children are just as likely to do this as grown people. Hence, at this season of the year, women and children earn what is considered pretty fair wages. Under the most favorable circumstances, the best hands will pick seven bushels a day. Very much depends, however, on the quality of the peanuts, and something also on the weather. In very dry weather, the stems come off with the pod, and pickers cannot do as well.Cleaning and Bagging.—After the peanuts are picked off, they should be cleaned, before being sacked. The object of this, of course, is to rid them of the earth that may still be adhering to them. It makes the hull look cleaner, and brighter also, and thus enhances the sale. Formerly, the planter made his own cleaning machine, but recently, since the starting of what are called "Peanut factories," the planter very seldom runs his peanuts through any machine at all, but sells them just as they are picked. Being thus rid of much trouble and labor, it is doubtful whether it would now pay the planter to clean his peanuts, as he once did. The price paid for them now, is almost as much as he would realize, were he to take ever so much pains in cleaning them.

But as the reader in other parts of the country, may desire to know something of the mode of cleaning peanuts at home, we give a description of the Virginia machine for this purpose. There is no patent on this machine, and any one may make it for himself. A cylinder (figure 7), as large as a flour barrel; is formed by nailing narrow slats of plank, to two circular pieces of timber. The slats are put a little way apart, but not far enough for the pods to slip through when the cylinder is turned. A piece of timber runs lengthwise, through the centre of the cylinder, the ends of this project about a foot, and serve as an axle on which to turn it. A crank is attached to one end or both ends of the axle. Two pieces of scantling are fastened together in the shape of an X, one for each end, and these are held upright by having pieces nailed on horizontally, from one to the other. Several slats on the cylinder are fastened together to make a door, and this is attached to the cylinder by hinges, and fastened with a button.

The peanuts are poured into the cylinder, two or three bushels at a time, and it is made to revolve slowly, until all the earth and litter has fallen out. The door is then opened, the peanuts turned out and bagged.

In bagging the peanuts, care should be taken to have the sacks well filled. They are estimated to hold four bushels each, and if properly filled, good solid peanuts will over-run a little, especially in the first part of the season, before they are thoroughly cured. As the sacks are being sewed up, the corners must be packed with peanuts as long as any more can be got in. For sewing up the sacks, the planter needs a large peanut-sack needle and twine made purposely for this business. Sacks cost the farmer, at the present, ten cents each, and generally the peanuts are sold by gross weight and nothing paid for the sacks. In some markets the sacks are paid for, and a pound deducted from the gross weight, for each sack. If the planter sells to a merchant near home, he seldom sews up the sacks, but ties them, and they are emptied and returned to him at the store.

Peanut "Factories."—It does not fall within our present plan to describe these establishments, any further than to give the reader, outside of the peanut belts, an idea of them. Formerly, many peanuts were sent into market without being properly assorted and cleaned, and it was found that, by assorting and re-cleaning them, a little margin of profit was left after paying expenses. One step led to another, and various appliances and machines were brought into requisition, until now, large buildings are devoted solely to the purpose of cleaning, assorting, and storing the peanuts. Some of these establishments employ many hands, both male and female, to clean, separate, and re-bag the peanuts ready for the trade.

Thus it has happened, that the business of cleaning peanuts has been taken out of the hands of the farmer, reduced to a system, and made a new industry. In fact, a division of labor; and now the merchant buys the peanuts of the planter just as they are picked, and the "factories," so-called, clean and assort them for the large buyers. Still, the merchant will pay more for Peanuts in nice order, and perhaps it would even now pay the farmer to properly clean and assort his crop before selling it.

The Best Markets.—A few years ago, the city of Norfolk was the sole market for the Virginia and North Carolina planter, and New York for the wholesale dealer. Later on, Wilmington, Petersburg, Richmond, and several of the smaller towns began to buy peanuts, until now, every village and trading centre throughout the whole peanut belt, has become the repository for the crop of its own immediate section. Every year, the market has been coming nearer and nearer to the planter, until now he finds it about as profitable to sell to the nearest country merchant, as to ship to town, and sometimes more so. Frequently, the country merchant becomes the agent of some large buyer, who furnishes the capital, and he buys all the peanuts he can, at figures very near the ruling market price. Of course, this works very much to the planter's benefit. He sees his crop weighed, he escapes the middleman, with all the attendant expenses, such as commissions, freight, etc., he sells for cash, and he does not have to wait several weeks for returns.

Under this state of affairs, the home market, or home buyer, becomes the best for the farmer. And with the constantly increasing demand, and close competition between buyers, the cleaning factories are also coming nearer the farmer, and already exist, or will soon exist, in each of the counties and sections where the Peanut is much grown. Thus the planters generally, will soon be enabled to sell directly to the cleaners, and the latter to the wholesale buyers. So the planter will get market prices, without the trouble of going to market. Perhaps the competition will eventually grow sharper still, until, not only will the peanuts be cleaned and bought at home, but will also be manufactured into oil, flour, and the other commercial forms, in the sections where they are grown. In everything, the tendency now is, to carry the factories to the raw material, and not the latter to the factories. It is not to be presumed that this crop will prove an exception.

Thus it is, that the farmer's work is being narrowed down, by the inevitable and beneficial law of the division of labor. The planter may now turn his attention wholly to the cultivation of the crop. How to order it, so as to realize the largest possible yield from the smallest possible areas, is now the problem before him. He finds given to his hands, a great and growing staple with great, and still unknown, possibilities, and he sees the demand becoming larger and more earnest, until now, the buyer comes to his very door, and puts down the ready cash for all of this crop that he has to sell.

Of course the planter must, and will bestir himself, to meet the ever-increasing demand. To do this with profit to himself, he must study this crop from beginning to end, he must learn the nature of the Peanut plant fully and correctly, and discovering how to increase the yield per acre to its maximum, unravel the secret of how to grow it at the least cost per bushel.

Picking Machines.—It may be well here to allude to a question, which, doubtless, the thoughtful reader has already asked himself, namely: Why does not some one invent a machine for picking peanuts rapidly, instead of having to do it by the slow and tedious process of hand-picking? In reply we state, that numerous attempts to do so have been made, but with very indifferent success. None of the many picking machines, that have hitherto been offered, have given satisfaction. It seems that they cannot be made to do the work, and most planters appear to have given up looking for any help in this direction. Very recently, the writer has heard of one picking machine that is said to be giving satisfaction, but he has not seen it, or conversed with any one who has done so. That an efficient machine of this kind is an impossibility, is not believed, but whether anything can be made that would pay better than the old method, is the question. The planter must await developments. Perhaps some ingenious mechanic will take up the problem, and give the planter a perfect and cheap picking machine. Here is a field for ingenuity. A good machine would be a profitable invention. Who will try?

Having now traced the Peanut plant through the whole process of its planting, cultivation, harvesting, and marketing, the practical part of our task is ended. If the directions are such as will enable the beginner in this branch of rural industry, to successfully cultivate and manage this crop, the end will have been attained, and this little book will not have been written in vain. It has been prepared for those having no practical acquaintance with the cultivation of the peanut crop, not for the old and experienced planter. And yet, without egotism, it is believed that even the latter may find something in it that will be of use to him. Practices vary in different sections, even among men of the same calling, and inasmuch as methods herein detailed, will be found to vary from those practiced in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, or the far South, so will the planter in those States who may chance to read this treatise, be enabled to compare our methods with his, to see wherein they differ, and perchance may find here some point or plan a little better than his own.

It only remains now to give, in another chapter, some of the many uses of the Peanut.