Chapter 9

soil deeply broken in the outset, the Peanut will withstand successfully any period of dry weather ever likely to occur in this country. It has been noticed that the crops that suffer the most from drouths are those planted on land not well prepared, or in orchards of growing trees, which necessarily extract a great deal of moisture from the soil. Even in a season as severe as that of 1883, peanuts planted on a deep, mellow soil out of the reach of trees, did well, and were well seeded and filled. Deep preparation of the soil, then, is a corrective of drouth for this crop, as well as for any other. With this simple precaution, no great apprehension need be entertained of the effects of dry weather. Let the planter but do his part in preparation and cultivation, and nature will be sure to respond with liberal, if not overflowing crops. The corn-planter has more to fear from dry weather than the peanut-planter.

=Appearance at this Period.=--The appearance of a thrifty crop of peanuts at the time of maturity, or a little after the last weeding, is simply magnificent. The vines have now met in both directions, and the whole field, from a little distance, looks as if covered with a carpet of velvet-plush. Nothing obstructs the view. The vines lie close on the soil, and the eye reaches every nook and corner of the field, and takes in the whole panorama at one glance. Few other crops afford so clear or so pleasing a prospect. Indian corn, in the tender green of summer, is a beautiful object to look upon, but it shuts out all view of distant parts of the farm. The golden wheat, as it bends to the passing breeze, is also beautiful, but one must go around it and not through it. A field of cotton, as the open bolls display the snowy lint, is a sight to please the admirer of nature, but it lacks the setting of green that is always pleasing to the eye. The peanut crop surpasses them all in beauty. It presents an air of freedom, of repose, of life, and of security from harm, of which no other can boast.

Such is the crop to which we have invited the reader's attention, and the planting and cultivation of which we have endeavored to describe. Having proceeded thus far, let us pause a moment, as the writer has done, time and again, to survey the beautiful prospect of a field of peanuts in full maturity. There it is, a literal carpet of living green, covering acres on acres of mother earth, and beneath its velvet folds is quietly growing the wealth that is to make its owner independent, and by means of which the planter's family is to secure most of the necessaries and comforts of life. No crop outside of the market gardens, yields so much actual cash per acre as this. No wonder, then, that it readily becomes popular with all who try it, and that it never loses ground wherever introduced under favorable circumstances.

An interval of about two months now elapses, during which the crop requires no attention. The seed pods are filling and maturing, and the whole plant is ripening for the harvest.