Peanuts

Just when peanut raising began in this country it is not possible to say, although peanuts are known to have been cultivated in a small portion of southeastern Virginia for many years before the Civil War. The popularity of peanuts among the many soldiers who were in this region during the Civil War is believed to be largely responsible for the rapid dissemination of peanut culture in this country after 1865. Reports of the Department of Agriculture at that time state that domestic peanut production increased from two hundred to three hundred per cent annually from 1865 to 1870. In 1889, peanut production was reported in 37 states, although 18 of these reported 8 acres or less and only 5 had over 20,000 acres. The same number of states reported peanut production in 1899 with 19 reporting 11 acres or less and 5 having over 20,000 acres. In 1909, 42 states reported, 19 of these having 10 acres or less and 7 having over 20,000 acres. Only 33 states reported in 1919, one-third of which had less than 10 acres and 6 having over 22,000 acres. The situation was practically the same in 1924 with 32 states reporting, 13 of which had less than 10 acres and 6 having over 22,000 acres. This shows clearly that after the rapid spread of peanut culture following soon after the Civil War, peanut growing has shifted very little in its geographical distribution in this country. Increased production in the United States since 1889 has resulted almost entirely from intensification and increased acreage in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas, the five leading states which account for about 85 per cent of the United States production. As in the case of tobacco production, Virginia was the pioneer and the principal producer for a long time, but was later surpassed by her sister state, North Carolina. The first records we have of peanut acreage and production are for 1889 as recorded in the United States census of 1890. In 1889 there were 204,000 acres of peanuts grown in the United States with a production of 3,558,000 bushels, and Virginia was still far in the lead among the States, producing one-third of the United States total. Peanut acreage increased 253 per cent from 1889 to 1899, with the largest increases of 440 per cent in North Carolina and 588 per cent in Texas, which, however, was of minor importance in 1889. The increase in production during these ten years was 336 per cent or considerably more

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