early enough to commit the seed to the earth. It should not be done anywhere until all danger from frost is passed for the season. A very slight frost will destroy the Peanut.

How to Plant.—I come now to consider the mode of planting. Here no very inflexible rules can be given. Practice varies greatly, almost every planter differing more or less from his brother planters. The chief points are, to get the seed into the ground at suitable distances apart both ways, to have the seed, after it is planted, raised slightly above the general level, and to have the soil so free from clods that there will be nothing to hinder the young plant from pushing through after it has started. Any mode of planting that will secure these ends will effect the purpose.

If the ground has been once plowed in the early spring, let it be plowed again only a few days before planting time, and if at all rough, or cloddy, have it harrowed until in fine tilth. When ready to plant, draw furrows the same as for corn, two and a half or three feet apart. If the land is fresh and strong, and never before in peanuts, make the rows at least three feet apart. After a year or two on the same ground, peanut vines will not grow so large as at first, and need not be so far apart, either from row to row, or from hill to hill. When the land is thin, some plant as near as twenty-seven inches from row to row, and twelve inches from hill to hill.

If any fertilizer is to be used, let it be put in the furrow before the ridge is formed; a man or boy following the plow and spreading the fertilizer by hand. A small ridge is then formed by lapping two furrows over the drill with the turn plow, after which the knocker and dotter follow, one leveling the ridge, and the other dotting the row by making little depressions in the soil the proper distance apart for the seeds.

Fig. 2.—THE KNOCKER AND DOTTER COMBINED.

The Knocker and Dotter.—Sometimes the knocker and dotter are combined in one, and it is withal a unique implement. Always home-made, it partakes of all the native roughness and varied ingenuity of the Southern planter. The engraving, figure 2, will illustrate the mode of constructing this implement. Two pieces of timber are sawed from a log to serve as wheels, such wood being selected as does not split easily. The diameter of the wheel is made the same as the desired distance between the hills, and three wooden pins are inserted equi-distant in the circumference, so that the wheels will make three dots, or signs, for planting, at each revolution. These wheels are connected by an axle, and set the same distance apart the rows are to be asunder. Two shafts are pinned to the axle, and braced in front of the wheels to keep them steady. A piece of heavy scantling, or a log of wood, six inches in diameter, is secured to the under side of the shafts just in front of the wheels. This is the knocker, and serves to level the ridge before the wheels. Properly adjusted, it does beautiful work, and leaves a flat, smooth ridge, in fine condition for the seed. The wheels pass along on the leveled ridge, making the dots, as shown in figure 2. Handles are fixed to the implement to enable the plowman to keep it in proper place, and for convenience in turning. One horse is fastened to this implement, and two rows are prepared for planting at the same time. This utensil would be troublesome to use in an orchard, or on stumpy ground. Peanuts, however, should always be planted on open ground clear of all impediments. Instead of the knocker and dotter combined, many planters omit the wheels, and make a separate implement with one wheel and a handle, to work by hand, as represented in figure 3. This can be run among trees and stumps. It resembles a wheelbarrow without the body.

Fig. 3.—THE DOTTER.

Hands—women, children, or men, follow the dotter, dropping a seed in each mark or depression, and carefully covering it with the foot, by pressing enough soil into the hole to just fill it. The holes are made one and a half to two inches deep, and the hands are cautioned not to get the seed covered deeper than that. One inch is deep enough to plant, if the soil is moist, but if quite dry the seed may be put deeper. Proceeding in this way, covering first with one foot and then with the other, the planters get on quite rapidly, although the hills are so near together. The planting is not at all tedious after one gets the knack of it, and is light and pleasant work. Some planters put two kernels instead of one in each hill, to insure a stand, but this practice increases the cost considerably, and is by no means general. After the seeds are planted they are very slightly, if at all, above the common level. In a week or ten days from the time of planting, the seeds will begin to heave or crack the ground, which shows that the germ has started, and greatly relieves the anxiety of the planter. Then, by counting the number of signs in a hundred hills, the farmer readily calculates what kind of a stand he will probably have.

Fertilizers.—We have already intimated that a calcareous soil is indispensable to successful Peanut culture. If the soil is not calcareous by nature, it must be made so artificially. Hence the proper fertilizer to use is one that contains a large per cent. of lime in some of its forms, as the carbonate, the phosphate, the nitrate, or the sulphate, or the chloride of calcium. Recently, the sulphate of lime (gypsum), has been employed, even on limed or marled land, and its use has been attended with good results. Animal and nitrogenous manures are not suited to the crop. Such fertilizers produce a heavy growth of vines, but there will be no full, solid pods unless lime in some form is also present. Marl has been found to be the one specific fertilizer for the Peanut plant—better than any other form of lime; and the chief element of value in marl has been shown to be the carbonate of lime. Some Virginia marls contain as high as seventy-five or eighty per cent. of the carbonate, and all of them range over twenty-five or thirty per cent. Now, marl is plentiful and cheap all along the Atlantic seaboard, from New Jersey to Florida, the beds lying side by side of, and intersecting, the very land that is the best adapted to the Peanut—a rare and fortunate coincidence, that planters are learning to fully appreciate. And were it not that the New Jersey land-owner finds it more profitable to raise fruits and vegetables for the two great cities that lie on either hand of him, even he would find the Peanut to be a paying crop. With his warm, light sand and green marl, he could easily raise them. I mention this as one of the possibilities of the Peanut, though not likely to be realized for the reason named.

Fig. 4.—STAKE.

Replanting.—In about two weeks from planting, if the weather has been mild, the young plants should be large enough to show where replanting is necessary. The planter goes along the row, making slight