Groundnut

“ GROUNDNUTS.—Practically no trade at present exists in this crop, but efforts are being made to reintroduce the cultivation into Bullom, where at one time a large quantity was grown for export.
The cultivation of groundnuts for local consumption is carried on, but the ridge system of planting, which is in vogue in the Gambia, is not adopted in Sierra Leone, and the groundnut stalks are removed from the ground without the nuts attached to them. The nuts in Sierra Leone are permitted to remain in the ground and depreciate in quality through insufficient drying. ”

“ Groundnuts, produced by the leguminous plant, Arachis hypogaea, are grown chiefly in West Africa, and the largest export is from Senegal and the Gambia; while Bambarra ground-nuts (Voandzeia subterranea) are very generally cultivated from Guinea to Natal. Cloves are extensively grown on Zanzibar and Pemba islands, Pemba being the chief source of the world’s supply of cloves. The chief drawbacks to the industry are the fluctuations of the yield of the trees, and the risk of over-production in good seasons. ”

“ Groundnuts are chiefly employed as a terminal crop in the cultivation adopted by the Nupes and Yorubas, but in the Kano and Zaria Provinces, where land is retained for long periods in cultivation and renovated annually by manure, they are often the first crop grown on opening new land, and are seldom planted later. ”

“ FIELD CROPS.—The soil is of a lighter and more sandy nature than that generally found in the forest region, but it is well adapted for the cultivation of many different kinds of crops, notably Guinea corn, millet, groundnuts, and cotton, while it is less satisfactory for yams. ”

“ The preparation of the soil for the Peanut is the same [Pg 17] as for corn, or any similar crop, except that more pains should be, and generally are taken, to get it in fine and mellow tilth. If it breaks up rough and turfy, as much land previously in corn is apt to do, it should be harrowed or dragged until it is fine. Generally, Virginia planters do not plow quite so deep for peanuts as they do for corn. This practice the writer believes to be unsound. Land should be plowed deep at the outset for all crops, whatever their nature or manner of growth. ”

“ Deep plowing is a corrective of dry weather, and as drouth sometimes tells heavily on the Peanut plant, as was the case in the season of 1883, it is always well to plow deep, and give the moisture of the subsoil a chance to rise upward, and reach the roots during a dry spell. The formation of a fine, mellow seed bed, is all the preparation a peanut soil requires, previous to planting time, apart from the application of manures, which is spoken of elsewhere. ”

“ If our view is correct, the Peanut will thrive on any suitable soil within the limits of the United States lying to the south of this line. This would make the cultivation of the Peanut possible in by far the greater part of the entire country. In fact, there is no doubt but that it may be grown successfully wherever Indian corn will thrive luxuriantly. Any section having a growing season of five months exempt from frost, may raise the Peanut. This gives the crop a much wider range than has been thought possible. It does not require a long period of extreme heat to mature it. ”

“ Indeed, more pounds per acre may be grown upon some stiff lands than on any light soil, however calcareous. But clayey land, or such as is dark or tenacious, will impart a stain or dark color to the pods that is objectionable to buyers, and hence soils of this nature are generally avoided. A tenacious soil is also colder and more inert than a light one during the earlier part of the summer, and as the Peanut plant requires a rather long term of warm weather to insure full growth and maturity, a warmer and quicker soil is preferable. ”

“ First Plowing and Weeding.—Usually, the cultivation of the Peanut begins by first siding the rows with a turn-plow, small mould-board attached, by which the soil is thrown from the plants, and lapped into a small ridge in the middle of the balk. Care is taken to run the plow quite near to the plants, so as to leave as little as possible for the hoe to do. The hoes follow the plow, removing the grass between the hills, if any, and loosening the soil about the plants. ”

“ If unable to penetrate the soil the nut dies.
Fig. 202. A Peanut Plant
In the United States, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee have the most favorable climates for peanut culture. Suitable climate and soil, however, may be found [Pg 203] from New Jersey to the Mississippi valley. A high, porous, sandy loam is the most suitable. Stiffer soils, which may in some cases yield larger crops than the loams, are yet not so profitable, for stiff soils injure the color of the nut. Lime is a necessity and must be supplied if the soil is deficient. Phosphoric acid and potash are needed. ”

“ I have four big trees of Stabler, and hardly a nut grows on them. Down there they behave themselves and have big crops. How do they have such big crops? I like them. I don't believe there is a tastier nut in the world. Even my hybrid Asiatic butternut cross. I have got quite a lot of them here to show you and the biggest filberts in the world and they are all seedlings.
Not a hickory nut, butternut or black walnut. I had a ton of black walnuts. There is a good crop of hybrids, filberts, English walnuts, and there are some other nuts. I am north of Lake Ontario. ”

“ But the actual or prospective peanut planter, who has an ash-colored or grayish soil, which is sandy and non-adhesive, is fortunate. If he will keep it well limed and trashed, or else rotate every fourth or fifth year with the Southern Field Pea, or other green crop, and marl, he will have land that will continue to produce paying crops of the brightest and most salable peanuts. There is an abundance of good peanut land all along the Atlantic seaboard, from New Jersey to Florida. ”

“ We can picture the day when our dooryards, our roadsides, our fields and hills shall be shaded by grand nut trees, showering sustenance and wealth on our descendants, and all people, and bearing the names of their originators; when the housewife of the future shall send her wireless call to the grocer for a kilo of Hales' Papershells, the Rush, the Jones, the Pomeroy Persian walnuts, the Black Ben Deming butternut, the Craig Corean chestnut, the Morris Hybrid hickory, the Close black-walnut or the Littlepage pecan. ”

“ In choosing land for a peanut crop, some attention should be paid to the previous crop. The Peanut requires a clean soil, one clear of roots, brush, stones, or rubbish of any kind, and hence it should follow some hoed crop, such as corn, cotton, or tobacco. In Virginia, corn land is generally preferred, and, as in the tide-water section, much of this land has been heavily marled, it commonly produces well. ”

“ Our tests in regards to nut growing are very limited. A pan of Chinese chestnut seed mixed in pure sand was set under the greenhouse bench last winter. The seed sprouted too early to be planted out, and trees have been left inside. Since the sand had no food value, Ra-Pid-Gro was applied to the leaves, allowing the drippings to go into the sand throughout the summer. Today, the little seedlings are indeed nice. Outside, a Persian walnut had yellow-toned leaves, and Ra-Pid-Gro was applied—now the leaves are green! It is amazing how quickly yellow leaves will become green. ”

“ It is eight years old, stands about eight feet high and is hardy. My Black Walnut seedlings stand from six inches to six feet high. They go back to six inches every other year when I cut them down to graft them. Nobody in the nut tree field can call me a grafter. I'll make him prove it!
The hickory, butternut, bitternut, and chestnut are step children and fend for themselves on less desirable soil. All are small. The regia-hindsii hybrids are small and young and are being given special care, but may not be perfectly hardy. They grow well. ”

“ A light, porous soil in which sand predominates, but not too sandy, warm and dry, and yet not too dry, but containing some moisture, and open to capillary circulation, suits the Peanut best. In all cases the soil most suitable for the Peanut must contain a certain amount of calcareous constituents. The color of the soil should be gray, with few or no traces of iron to stain the pods. ”

“ The wild nuts gathered in this country for sale or home use in the North are chestnuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts, butternut, hazel-nut, beechnut; in the South, the pecan and the chinquapin; in the far West, the pine nut. The least known of these in eastern markets are the pine nuts, which form a very staple article of food for many tribes of Indians in the Great Basin. John Muir says that there are tens of thousands of acres covered with nut pines. An industrious Indian family can gather fifty or sixty bushels in a month if the snow does not catch them. ”

“ There are meteorological differences on each side of the Susquehanna River at Scranton-Wilkes Barre where the varieties shift. In the northern area we go from the northern hardwood with the beech-birch-sugar maple, into the oaks right in the state, with a third of the state in the northern hardwoods and the rest of the state in the oaks. We have no idea that any one variety of black walnuts or English walnuts or chestnuts will fill our needs any more than we know that any one apple will fill our needs, that one grape or one cherry will fill our needs, even one peach, not even the Elberta. ”

“ Each has its own requirements; hickory, Japanese heartnut and Persian walnuts favor an alkaline soil, which chestnuts, wanting acid will not grow in; chestnuts thrive best in a slightly acid, well-drained soil; hazels will grow in either alkaline or acid soil as will black walnuts and butternuts; almonds need a light sandy soil, similar to that suitable to plums, pecans do well in either rich river bottoms, which may be slightly acid, or in clay soil on high hillsides which are alkaline. ”

“ Why, those dead people can be working; they can be doing something. Let them feed the roots of the Japanese heartnut. And as a try, I sent them 1100 seeds just as a start. And the Japanese heartnut, a stranger to this country, isn't anywhere near any other nut, and it grows true to form, and a lot of the trees are much hardier up on Lake Ontario. It does not grow well on the north of the lake, but south of the lake it grows enormous crops every year, and the nuts come out whole. ”

“ One utterly complete failure must be noted. I shall never again plant a black walnut seed or tree in any but good soil. Even the best inheritance cannot prevail against hardpan or worn-out soil.
I was unfortunate, when I made my first and largest planting of seed, in not knowing about the Northern Nut Growers Association. So I advertised for local nuts, paying double for the seed I accepted. So far as the seed which was selected because of the timber growth of the parent tree was concerned, I am well satisfied. But nut quality was only fair; far below the quality of our named varieties. ”

“ The pistachio, the walnut, the filbert and the chestnut are all important tree crops in parts of the Mediterranean countries and many American travelers have probably seen the chestnut orchards of France and Italy, which I have found by examination are able to make the rough and unplowable mountain-side, bristling with rocks, as valuable as the level black prairies of Illinois.
The natural objection may be raised that the utilization of so much hilly land in fruit and nut-yielding trees will give such supplies of new food that people will refuse to use them. ”

“ Land will bear large quantities of marl with perfect safety, if kept well stocked with some vegetable matter to subdue its caustic effects. But as most of the best peanut soil is deficient in this respect, the planter should begin cautiously, using small quantities until he has deepened his soil and supplied it with vegetable mould by trashing the land or turning in green crops. ”

“ I found that while other butternut trees bore nuts in clusters of one to three, this butternut tree was bearing them in clusters of ten and eleven. At Lake George, right in front of the Post-Office, there was one tree twenty-four years old, two feet through, that grew butternuts in clusters of ten and you could get a barrel of nuts from it. It bore again this last summer heavily, not in clusters of ten but in clusters of seven or eight. When we have damp soil we can't grow the chestnut but the hickory nut will grow in a swamp, and so will the butternut. ”

“ We believe the hazel hybrids and filberts are of value as a secondary nut crop, as fillers-in between the black walnuts or used as ornamental bushes for screening around the grounds. Where local conditions justify it we recommend that the home orchard include a variety of nut trees, the English walnut, the northern pecan, certain hybrid hickories and a highly blight-resistant chestnut. The Guild has realized from the start that most laymen know little or nothing about the planting of nut trees. We, therefore, work with them individually, advising them in detail on their particular plantings. ”

“ The peanut produces an average crop of at least 40 bushels, or 900 pounds of shelled nuts to the acre, equivalent to 8,280 pounds of cow's milk, to produce which would require 4.6 acres. A grove of black walnuts, 40 trees to the acre, producing one hundred pounds of nuts to the tree, or one thousand to the acre, would afford as much protein as 8,500 pounds of milk, to produce which would require 5.3 acres. ”