TABLE 1.-Peanuts: Acres, harvests, prices, values, 1916-1931

[Sources: U. S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook of Agriculture, 1931, and Crop and Markets, December, 1931]

The table shows that more than a million acres are planted in peanuts annually in the United States. More than 600,000,000 pounds have been harvested therefrom in each year since 1916, usually a much greater quantity than that. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century there had been a gradual increase in the production, but it was not until the second decade of the twentieth century that a great acceleration took place, which culminated, in 1917, in a peak of 1,432,000,000 pounds, a figure marking hitherto and thenceforward to date the high tide of the American harvests. In that year a big harvest coincided with a high price and the estimate is that more than $101,000,000 was paid to farmers for the crop; probably the greatest value on record. It is noted that in 1921, 1926, and 1930 the value of the harvest sank to nearly $30,000,000, in the first two years, and to nearly $25,000,000 in 1930.

The great increase in the peanut harvest in the second decade of the twentieth century is attributed largely to the destructive incursion of an insect-the boll weevil. Thousands of acres of cotton were devastated by this invincible pest as it moved eastward from Texas into the States of the southeast section. Farmers were driven to a diversification of crops, an act of great economic importance in the South, long considered but hitherto not adopted. Many of them turned from cotton to peanuts, against the plant of which no insect had been known to make fatal attack. Greatly increased acreages in Georgia, Alabama, and Texas were planted; increased tonnages were harvested; new mills quickly went into operation; there was a ready market for the nuts at these cleaning and shelling plants. New outlets for the product were devised, extending into the confectionery and baking industries; increasing quantities were ground into peanut butter; the World War was in progress, and millions of pounds were pressed for oil. The table shows that in 1918, production almost equalled the figure of the year before, climbing to 1,240,000,000 pounds; the last of the billion-pound harvests, however, for more than a decade.

There followed in 1919 a marked decrease in production, from the billion-pound figures of the two preceding years to 783,000,000 pounds; but with an inverse movement of the price. During three months of this season, as previously noted, there was an average of 11.2 cents per pound, or $224 per ton. The average for the season was 9.2 cents, or $184 per ton. It was then and still remains the peak of the seasonal averages in the history of American peanuts. The peanut had reached a state of high appraisal throughout the cotton belt. The boll weevil was proclaimed a blessing in disguise. In a thriving little city of southern Alabama representatives of the commission were shown a monument, erected at the intersection of main thoroughfares, on which was the inscription:

In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity, this monument is erected by the citizens of Enterprise, Coffee County, Ala.

This memorial was set up in 1919, at a cost of $3,000, by citizens to whom the shift from cotton to peanuts had brought prosperity. The monument became an economic landmark for the section.

In 1931, the total acres reported as planted in peanuts, amounted to 1,419,000, the greatest number since 1918, and for the third time in 14 years the figure for the harvest crossed the billion-pound mark, jumping from 747,000,000 pounds in 1930 to 1,083,000,000 in 1931.

More acres are planted in peanuts in the Southeast than in any of the other sections, its part of the total for the United States usually being about 50 per cent. Since 1928, the harvest in the same section has been greater than that in any other.

CHAPTER III. SELLING RAW STOCK, PROCESSING, MARKETING FINISHED GOODS

Section 1. Grower's financial and marketing arrangements.-His financial arrangements during the growing season have an important bearing on the method followed by the peanut grower in disposing of his crop. In most cases he has not the ready cash to meet his expenses between planting and harvesting and is compelled to obtain credit covering this period.1

In Virginia and North Carolina some growers own their farms, others rent for cash, and still others farm on a share basis with the landlord. Local merchants generally advance money to them on notes or on a limited open account, often taking a crop lien as security. In the Southeast, the farms range from 100 acres to several thousand, owned by planters who lease 30 acres or more to croppers. on a share basis. The planter makes small advances of money, a month at a time, and the tenant repays from his half of the crop; or the tenant may obtain credit from country merchants and even banks, within certain limits. Both the landlord and the country merchant often borrow from the banks in order to finance the grower. In the Southwest, both the landlords and the local banks lend to the farmer during the season. In none of the sections do the shelling plants make advances of money to the growers, though some of the individual shellers are interested in local banks and may through them participate in the financing arrangements.

Farmers' stock peanuts are sold in units varying with the section. In Virginia and North Carolina, the Virginia type are sold by the pound, the Spanish by the bushel. In the Southeast the ton is the unit for both Spanish and runners. In the Southwest, where only Spanish are grown, the bushel is used.

In marketing his farmers' stock after the harvest the grower is guided by the financial arrangements which he made in the spring and summer. If he owes the country merchant, as is so frequently the case, he turns his crop over to this creditor at the market price as soon after the harvest as possible, in order to strike a balance. Very often low prices result from this transaction, as more peanuts are delivered than the market can immediately absorb. Debts to the bank are usually discharged by the grower's selling for cash and then paying the bank. If he is not bound to discharge obligations he may sell to the country merchant for cash or supplies. Some growers sell to speculators, a class of buyers ranging from small country merchants, or even farmers, to large independent operators owning their warehouses, storing by the carload and holding for better prices. Much tonnage is sold for cash directly to the sheller by the grower, who trucks his peanuts to the mill door. With the development of

1 For a full discussion of this subject and of marketing methods see United States Depart ment of Agriculture Bulletin No. 1401, Marketing Peanuts, by Harold J. Clay and Paul M. Williams, marketing specialists, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

good roads and trucking facilities, this has become a common method of marketing for the farmer, and long lines of trucks loaded with peanuts are often seen at the mill platform.

A large percentage of the crop is likewise sold for cash through the country buyer, or commission man, as he is sometimes called, an important functionary in both the Virginia-North Carolina and Southeast sections. In the former, he sometimes acts merely as commission man, taking orders from the sheller to buy at a given price, buying thereat and receiving 7 cents per bag purchased; or he may act merely as seller to the mill, if he has already bought farmers' stock peanuts in his own name, thus taking 7 cents per bag commission and a profit or loss on his own transaction. These Virginia and North Carolina buyers are located at various marketing points, in the two States, being sometimes one of several, sometimes the only buyer at a given point. They may buy throughout the season for but one shelling company, handling the company's “account," as it is said; or they may represent two or more shellers in the course of the season, even two or more simultaneously. Some of the mills in this section, however, have abandoned this method of buying and employ traveling agents who visit the peanut fields with the country buyer and decide what farmers' stock shall be purchased. The country buyer, however, receives the commission. of 7 cents per bag for his work of loading the purchased goods on the cars.

In the Southeast section, the country buyer, as a rule, represents but one shelling company during the season, receiving $3 per ton as a commission. In the Southwest it is customary for the sheller to employ salaried buyers exclusively, these agents covering a given territory and purchasing and shipping the farmers' stock to the mills.

Section 2. Market centers and shelling plants.-Practically all the peanut mills in the United States are located within or very near the peanut-growing sections. Few growers, therefore, are far distant from a shelling plant, and their harvest, whether sold to the commission buyer for the mill, directly to the mill from the truck, or first to the country merchant is eventually, in most cases, taken by mills in near-by territory. Freight, cost of hauling, and shelling capacity are of course factors in limiting the radius of a mill's purchasing activities. Some of the large plants at Suffolk, Va., for example, may draw on territory 200 miles or more from the plant; some of the small mills in Alabama may not reach beyond the county in which they are located. The leading primary markets thus established by the various mills are listed below:

Virginia Suffolk, Petersburg, Franklin, Wakefield, Norfolk.
North Carolina: Edenton, Enfield, Plymouth, Ahoskie, Wilmington.
Tennessee: Nashville, Johnsville.

Georgia: Albany, Cordele, Savannah, Donalsonville, Valdosta, Bainbridge, Fort Gaines, Arlington.

Alabama: Dothan, Enterprise, Troy, Samson, Andalusia.

Florida: Malone, Greenwood, Marianna.

South Carolina: Charleston.

Texas: Fort Worth, DeLeon, Denison, Houston, Abilene.
Oklahoma: Durant, Hugo.

Arkansas: Fort Smith.

Beginning on pages 73 and 76, respectively, there are two lists of the peanut mills in the United States, the first arranged by sections and States, and the other arranged alphabetically, by companies for convenience of reference. In addition to the mill towns noted in the lists there are numerous small places scattered through the peanut-growing States, where the grower disposes of his farmers' stock to country merchants or commission men. The list of companies on page 76 shows that 51 organizations operate 102 shelling plants. Thirty-six of these are single-plant concerns; 15 have other plants under their control.

The Columbian Peanut Co., Norfolk, Va., leads in the number of plants operated, with 24 at various points in all sections except Tennessee. It has 6 in Virginia, 7 in North Carolina, 6 in Georgia, 3 in Alabama, 1 in Arkansas, and 1 in Florida.

The American Peanut Corporation, Norfolk, Va., has 10 plants, one or more located in each peanut-growing section except Tennessee. Four of these are in Virginia, two in Texas, and one in each of the following States: Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. The Southern Cotton Oil Co., New Orleans, La., has five peanutshelling plants, all in the Southeast section-four in Georgia, and one in Alabama.

The Barnhart Mercantile Co., St. Louis, Mo., has four plants, one located in each of the sections, including Tennessee. Its headquarters are at St. Louis, Mo., and it has 1 plant in Virginia, 1 in Tennessee, 1 in Georgia, and 1 in Texas.

The Planters Nut & Chocolate Co., Suffolk, Va., one of the largest and most influential concerns in the industry, operates two shelling plants, one in Suffolk and one in Charleston, S. C. It has consuming plants in Pennsylvania, California, and Canada.

A number of other concerns, as indicated in the list, operate two or more plants, five of them having such establishments in more than one section.

It is noted that two or more mills are operating at a number of the marketing centers mentioned on page 10, as, for example, at Suffolk, Va., there are 6; at Albany, Ga., where there are 3; at Cordele, Ga., 3; at Fort Gaines, Ga., 2; Dothan, Ala., 2; Enterprise, Ala., 2.

Section 3. Commercial grades of peanuts.-Whether the purchaser of farmers' stock peanuts is the merchant, speculator, commission man, or the mill, he makes his price to the farmer with a view to the commercial grades of finished goods which the raw stock will yield when processed at the shelling plant.

In the Virginia-North Carolina section, size is an important factor, as roughly, the larger peanuts are merely cleaned and then sold to the consumer in the shell, while the smaller ones are shelled before going on the market. The buyer estimates what percentage of commercial grades the varieties Bunch, Runner, and Jumbo will produce, for these varieties lose their identity once they are in the mill, and the commercial grades emerge as a mixture of all three varieties and are sold in the shell as jumbos (to be distinguished from the Jumbo variety), fancies, and extras. The shelled grades are the smaller nuts and are, according to size, known as extra large, Virginia No. 1, and Virginia No. 2. The processes by which these grades are separated are described in the following section.