o its normal green. The above dates apply to the
latitude of Virginia. In the far south, peanut planting begins early in
April, while north of Virginia, the first half of June would, in most
seasons, be quite 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.

[Illustration: 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