routh sometimes tells
heavily on the Peanut plant, as was the case in the season of 1883, it
is always well to plow deep, and give the moisture of the subsoil a
chance to rise upward, and reach the roots during a dry spell. The
formation of a fine, mellow seed bed, is all the preparation a peanut
soil requires, previous to planting time, apart from the application of
manures, which is spoken of elsewhere.

=The Seed.=--With the peanut crop, more than with almost any other, good
seed is a matter of paramount importance. The seed sometimes fails to
germinate well; before this fact can be discovered, and the ground
re-seeded, unless the first planting was made quite early, the best
season for planting will have passed, and the crop planted late will
never be so good as it might have been. On the other hand, a very early
planting doubles the risk of failure, in fact almost challenges failure
by committing the seed to a soil too cold for germination and a quick
growth. It is highly important, then, to have good seed, and to wait
until both weather and soil are favorable for speedy germination and
growth.

In order to determine whether the seed will germinate well or not, let
the planter begin to test them early in the spring. Let him take a dozen
or two kernels that appear to be in quality a fair average of the whole
lot of seed on hand, place them in a tumbler with some dampened cotton,
or a piece of sponge, and set the tumbler in a warm place, where the
heat is uniform, and high enough to start the germ in a few days. In a
day or two, if the seeds are good, they will begin to swell, and the
embryo plant will soon begin to grow. Thus, according to the number of
seeds that have germinated out of the number tested, the planter can
calculate the probable per-centage of good seed. A glass of peanuts
growing thus in dampened cotton, presents an interesting study, and is a
pretty ornament for the sitting room.

But the planter must not rest satisfied with one trial. As soon as the
out-of-door temperature will admit of it, he should try quite a number
of the seeds in the open ground. Selecting a warm, sunny spot, he should
plant from fifty to one hundred kernels, and shelter the place as much
as possible from the cold winds. If these germinate well, the seed may
be relied upon as good, and no further trial need be made. It is in this
way that the Virginia planter tests his seed every season. About the
first of April there is a