as
any more can be got in. For sewing up the sacks, the planter needs a
large peanut-sack needle and twine made purposely for this business.
Sacks cost the farmer, at the present, ten cents each, and generally the
peanuts are sold by gross weight and nothing paid for the sacks. In some
markets the sacks are paid for, and a pound deducted from the gross
weight, for each sack. If the planter sells to a merchant near home, he
seldom sews up the sacks, but ties them, and they are emptied and
returned to him at the store.

=Peanut "Factories."=--It does not fall within our present plan to
describe these establishments, any further than to give the reader,
outside of the peanut belts, an idea of them. Formerly, many peanuts
were sent into market without being properly assorted and cleaned, and
it was found that, by assorting and re-cleaning them, a little margin of
profit was left after paying expenses. One step led to another, and
various appliances and machines were brought into requisition, until
now, large buildings are devoted solely to the purpose of cleaning,
assorting, and storing the peanuts. Some of these establishments employ
many hands, both male and female, to clean, separate, and re-bag the
peanuts ready for the trade.

Thus it has happened, that the business of cleaning peanuts has been
taken out of the hands of the farmer, reduced to a system, and made a
new industry. In fact, a division of labor; and now the merchant buys
the peanuts of the planter just as they are picked, and the "factories,"
so-called, clean and assort them for the large buyers. Still, the
merchant will pay more for Peanuts in nice order, and perhaps it would
even now pay the farmer to properly clean and assort his crop before
selling it.

=The Best Markets.=--A few years ago, the city of Norfolk was the sole
market for the Virginia and North Carolina planter, and New York for the
wholesale dealer. Later on, Wilmington, Petersburg, Richmond, and
several of the smaller towns began to buy peanuts, until now, every
village and trading centre throughout the whole peanut belt, has become
the repository for the crop of its own immediate section. Every year,
the market has been coming nearer and nearer to the planter, until now
he finds it about as profitable to sell to the nearest country merchant,
as to ship to town, and sometimes more so. Frequently, the country
merchant becomes the agent of some large buyer, who furnishes the
capital, and