pod, and pickers cannot do as well.

=Cleaning and Bagging.=--After the peanuts are picked off, they should
be cleaned, before being sacked. The object of this, of course, is to
rid them of the earth that may still be adhering to them. It makes the
hull look cleaner, and brighter also, and thus enhances the sale.
Formerly, the planter made his own cleaning machine, but recently, since
the starting of what are called "Peanut factories," the planter very
seldom runs his peanuts through any machine at all, but sells them just
as they are picked. Being thus rid of much trouble and labor, it is
doubtful whether it would now pay the planter to clean his peanuts, as
he once did. The price paid for them now, is almost as much as he would
realize, were he to take ever so much pains in cleaning them.

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--VIRGINIA PEANUT CLEANING MACHINE.]

But as the reader in other parts of the country, may desire to know
something of the mode of cleaning peanuts at home, we give a description
of the Virginia machine for this purpose. There is no patent on this
machine, and any one may make it for himself. A cylinder (figure 7), as
large as a flour barrel; is formed by nailing narrow slats of plank, to
two circular pieces of timber. The slats are put a little way apart, but
not far enough for the pods to slip through when the cylinder is turned.
A piece of timber runs lengthwise, through the centre of the cylinder,
the ends of this project about a foot, and serve as an axle on which to
turn it. A crank is attached to one end or both ends of the axle. Two
pieces of scantling are fastened together in the shape of an X, one for
each end, and these are held upright by having pieces nailed on
horizontally, from one to the other. Several slats on the cylinder are
fastened together to make a door, and this is attached to the cylinder
by hinges, and fastened with a button.

The peanuts are poured into the cylinder, two or three bushels at a
time, and it is made to revolve slowly, until all the earth and litter
has fallen out. The door is then opened, the peanuts turned out and
bagged.

In bagging the peanuts, care should be taken to have the sacks well
filled. They are estimated to hold four bushels each, and if properly
filled, good solid peanuts will over-run a little, especially in the
first part of the season, before they are thoroughly cured. As the sacks
are being sewed up, the corners must be packed with peanuts as long