OCR Text |
Show Our Dixie Climate has been proven to be very well adapted to the growth of the peanut, and in order to encourage our farmers to launch out in that indusrty, we give the following items taken from Farmers Bulletin No. 25, from U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agri-culture. "The peanut (Arachis hypo-gosa,) hypo-gosa,) known also in different lo-calities lo-calities as the earthnut, groundnut, ground pea, goober, and pindar, is a trailing, straggling annual, growing grow-ing from 1 to 2 feet high, with thick, angular, pale-green, hairy stems, and spreading branches, and has the peculiar habit of ma- tunng its fruit underground, btnet-ly btnet-ly speaking it is not a nut at all, and should more properly be called call-ed the ground pea. Its blossom is at the end of a long pedicel-like calyx tube, tha ovary being at the base. After the fall of the flower the peduncle, or "spike," elongates and bends downward, pushing several inches into the ground, where the ovary at its extremity ' begins to enlarge and develops in to a pale yellowish, wrinkled, slihty curved pod, often contract ed in the middle, containing from 1 to 3 seeds. Should the "spike" by accident not ' be enabled to thrust its point in the ground within with-in a few hours after the fall of the v flower it withers and dies. When fully grown the pods are from 1 to 2 inches long, of a dusky yellowish color, with a netted surf ace." The yield on average good land, that has not been run out, is about 50 bushels to the acre, and in some instances there has been 100 bushels bush-els grown. The Virginia running variety is most widely known, but there are several other varieties that have been grown in the United States. The Virginia Bunch, lied, White, North Carolina or African, and Spanish have all been grown in different parts of the southern states. |