ne subject to currents of
hot air.

These suggestions embody all that need be done to secure good seed. If
peanuts are fully cured when picked off, and are not kept too close,
they will prove good seed, unless there is some radical defect of the
germ or vital powers. Keep them from heating, and they will germinate
and grow as readily as corn. Every planter may, and should, save his own
seed. According to the number of acres that he thinks of planting, let
him provide two bushels of seed (or forty-four pounds in the hull), for
each acre, and he will have enough and some to spare.

CHAPTER V.

MARKETING.

It requires as much judgment to market a crop well, as it does to raise
and harvest it, and often more. Unfortunately, the majority of planters
are sadly deficient in that knowledge of commercial life, which would
make them masters of the situation. Too often they are bound by lien or
mortgage, or else they have run up a heavy bill at the country store,
and when the crop is made and ready for market, they are obliged to sell
forthwith. Generally too, this is the very time when prices are lowest,
and so the planter is obliged to part with the fruits of his labor at
the most unfavorable rates, and allow the middlemen to pocket the
profits. It is only by careful economy and prudent management, on the
part of each planter for himself, that this evil is to be corrected.
Without entering into the details of commercial affairs, we will
endeavor to show the planter how he may go into market with his crop,
prepared to command the best prices. To this end, it is essential that
he have his crop in the best marketable condition, remembering that a
good article always sells well.

=Picking off the Peanuts.=--This part of the work, usually done by women
and children, may make or spoil the sale of the entire crop. If stems
are gathered with the pods, and good, bad, and indifferent are all
lumped together, with leaves and trash thrown in for good measure, a
great deal of assorting and cleaning will subsequently be required, or
else the sale of the crop will be impaired to the extent of one or two
cents to the pound. In picking, the stems should be rejected, and the
saps and inferior pods, if gathered at all, be kept apart from the rest.
Only the best, brightest, and soundest pods should go into the A, No.
1's, and these, if clean of earth and trash, will always bring top
prices. The saps also will sell, at lower rates. It