The Peanut Plant: Its Cultivation And Uses

Origin.-The native country of the Peanut (Arachis hypog?a) is not definitely ascertained. Like many other extensively cultivated plants, it has not been found in a truly wild state. Some botanists regard the plant as a native of Africa, and brought to the New World soon after its discovery. Sloane, in his history of Jamaica, states that peanuts formed a part of the provisions taken by the slave ships for the support of the negroes on the voyage, and leaves it to be inferred that the plant was introduced in this manner.

De Candolle, in Géographie Botanique Raisonnée, and his latter work on L'Origine des Plantes Cultivées, strongly inclines to the American origin of the Peanut. The absence of any mention of the plant by early Egyptian and Arabic writers, and the fact that there is no name for it in Sanscrit and Bengalese, are regarded as telling against its Oriental origin. Moreover, there are six other species of Arachis, natives of Brazil, and Bentham and Hooker, in their Genera Plantarum, ask if the plant so generally grown in warm countries may not be a cultivated form of a Brazilian species.

If, as seems probable, the Peanut is really a native of America, then this Continent has contributed to the agricultural world five plants that have exerted, and will continue to exert, an immense influence on the industries and commerce of the world. These are: the Potato, Cotton, Tobacco, Indian Corn, and the Peanut. Of these five, the Peanut, the last to come into general and prominent notice, is destined to rival some of the others in importance.

Whatever may have been its origin, the Peanut plant has gradually made its way over an extended area of the warmer parts of both the Old and New World, and in North America has gained a permanent foot-hold in the soil of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. Nor has it yet reached its ultimate limits, for cultivation and acclimation will inure it to a sterner climate, until it becomes an important crop in latitudes considerably further north than Virginia. This is indicated by its rapid spread within the past few years. Remaining long in comparative obscurity, it was not until a recent period that the Peanut gained prominence as an agricultural and commercial staple, but since it fairly started, its progress has been rapid and sure.

Natural History.-There are some peculiarities about the Peanut plant that make it interesting to the naturalist. Its habit of clinging close to the soil, the closing together of the leaves at sunset, or on the approach of a storm, the beautiful appearance of a field of it when full grown, and the remarkable wart-like excrescences found upon the roots, are some of its more notable characteristics. Its striking preference for a calcareous soil is another of its peculiarities, the Peanut producing more and better crops on this kind of soil than on any other.

The Peanut belongs to the Natural Order Leguminos?, or pod-bearing plants, and this particular member of it is as unlike all the rest with which we are acquainted, as can well be conceived. No other grows so recumbent upon the soil, and none but this produces seed under ground.

The botanical name of the Peanut is Arachis hypog?a. The origin of the generic name arachis is somewhat obscure; it is said to come from a, privative, and rachis, a branch, meaning having no branches, which is not true of this plant. The specific appellation, hypog?a, or "under-ground," describes the manner in which the pods grow. The following is a partially technical description of the plant:

Root annual, branched, but not fibrous, yellowish, bitter, and warty; Stem procumbent, spreading, much-branched, somewhat hairy towards the extremities; Leaves compound, leaflets obovate, mucronate, margin entire, ciliate when young, smooth and almost leathery with age, leaves closing at night and in rainy weather; Flowers papilionaceous, yellow, borne upon the end of an axillary peduncle. After flowering, the forming-pod is, by the elongation of its stalk, pushed into the soil, beneath which it grows and ripens; Legume, or pod indehiscent, woody and veiny, one to four-seeded; Seed, with a reddish coat, the embryo with two large, fleshy cotyledons, and a very short, nearly straight, radicle. Figure 1 represents a portion of the Peanut plant.

Fig. 1.-PORTION OF THE PEANUT PLANT, showing how the minute pods from above-ground flowers are forced into the soil to grow and ripen.

Varieties.-While no botanical varieties of Arachis hypog?a have been described, its long cultivation in different countries in unlike soils and climates, has produced several cultural varieties. Taking the Virginia Peanut as the typical form, there may be named as differing from it, the North Carolina Peanut, having very small but solid and heavy pods, that weigh twenty-eight pounds to the bushel. The Tennessee Peanut is about the size of the Virginia variety, but has a seed of a much redder color and less agreeable flavor. There is a Bunch variety, that does not spread out like a mat over the soil, but grows upright like the common field pea. This last kind has been raised to some extent in Virginia, but has never become popular with planters, and is fast passing out of cultivation. It is possible that the Bunch Peanut is a representative of the plant in its wild state. It produces fewer seeds and less vine than any other kind. The flat or spreading Peanut shows a tendency to sport in this direction, and in any large field of peanuts, quite a number of plants will be found that have the bunch form, and such are always barren or seedless hills.

The small-podded, or North Carolina Peanut, is not at all popular with pickers, because it takes a great many more to make a basketful, and, unless they are paid an extra price for picking this sort, they cannot make as good wages. Nor do our planters seem to like it very well, finding it more trouble to handle than the larger variety. Hence it is but little cultivated in Virginia.

The Peanut in its travels has also acquired a variety of names, such as ground-pea, earth-nut, goober[1] or guber, and pindar. Also "currency," "cash," "credit," and other expressive titles. Of all these names, "Peanut" is the most generally used, but Ground-pea would be the more descriptive name.

Possible Range.-From a somewhat careful study of the climatic requirements of the Peanut plant, and of the isotherms of summer temperature, we are satisfied that it would thrive as far north as the northern limit of the zone of the vine. This for the United States, as delineated in Mitchell's Physical Geography, starts on the Pacific Coast in the latitude of British Columbia, turns suddenly south along the Cordilleras to Colorado, then trends as suddenly northward to the northern limits of Iowa, strikes eastwardly along a line to the south of the great lakes, and enters the Atlantic in the vicinity of Cape Cod. 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. The seeds are mostly formed in the cooler weather of the latter part of summer and the first of autumn. Planted in June, cultivated until August or a little later, and harvested the last of September, it can be perfected in four months, though the Virginia planter takes five months for it. Any good calcareous soil, west of New Jersey and southward, that is not too elevated, will grow the Peanut.

Analysis.-This, perhaps, is not a matter of much practical importance to the planter. The best peanut soil and the proper fertilizer had been found out before an analysis of the plant had been made. Still there are some advantages in knowing what are the prominent elements that enter into the composition of this, or any other, cultivated plant, and an analysis is accordingly given.

An analysis made by Doctor Thomas Antisell, chemist to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and published in the Report of that Department about the year 1869, gives the following as the composition of the Peanut plant:

In one hundred parts of the husk and nut taken together

Water 2.60

Albuminous, fibrous matter and starch 79.26

Oil 16.00

Ash 2.00

Loss .14