ountry
generally, and is not regarded with much apprehension. If the plant is
once well established in the soil, being tap-rooted, it can stand a good
deal of dry weather. It takes a long period of extremely dry weather to
materially injure this crop. Such a season did occur in 1883, and the
consequence was a great many blasted pods and a short crop. Generally,
moderately dry summers are looked upon with favor by the planter,
inasmuch as seasons of this kind enable him to keep the crop clean of
grass at much less cost. Just here we would repeat what we said in
Chapter II, in relation to deep plowing preparatory to planting. With a
soil deeply broken in the outset, the Peanut will withstand successfully
any period of dry weather ever likely to occur in this country. It has
been noticed that the crops that suffer the most from drouths are those
planted on land not well prepared, or in orchards of growing trees,
which necessarily extract a great deal of moisture from the soil. Even
in a season as severe as that of 1883, peanuts planted on a deep, mellow
soil out of the reach of trees, did well, and were well seeded and
filled. Deep preparation of the soil, then, is a corrective of drouth
for this crop, as well as for any other. With this simple precaution, no
great apprehension need be entertained of the effects of dry weather.
Let the planter but do his part in preparation and cultivation, and
nature will be sure to respond with liberal, if not overflowing crops.
The corn-planter has more to fear from dry weather than the
peanut-planter.

=Appearance at this Period.=--The appearance of a thrifty crop of
peanuts at the time of maturity, or a little after the last weeding, is
simply magnificent. The vines have now met in both directions, and the
whole field, from a little distance, looks as if covered with a carpet
of velvet-plush. Nothing obstructs the view. The vines lie close on the
soil, and the eye reaches every nook and corner of the field, and takes
in the whole panorama at one glance. Few other crops afford so clear or
so pleasing a prospect. Indian corn, in the tender green of summer, is a
beautiful object to look upon, but it shuts out all view of distant
parts of the farm. The golden wheat, as it bends to the passing breeze,
is also beautiful, but one must go around it and not through it. A field
of cotton, as the open bolls display the snowy lint, is a sight to
please the admirer of nature, but it lacks the sett