if no
more uses than are now known, are ever found for any part of this plant,
it will continue to occupy an important position among the agricultural
productions of the country. Its importance will increase year by year,
its value being too well understood and appreciated for it ever to lose
its place among our leading crops.

=Peanut Oil.=--The use that gives the Peanut especial value as an
American crop, is the place it occupies as an oil-producing plant. The
oil of the Peanut is regarded as equal in all respects to sweet or olive
oil, and may be employed for every purpose to which that is applied.
This gives it at once a commanding position, and were no other use found
for the plant, this would give it great importance among the economic
productions of our country. Olive oil is largely consumed for culinary
uses, in medicine, and in the arts. Except in California, the olive has
never been planted upon a commercial scale in this country, and it is
very important that we possess a plant, that will obviate our dependence
upon foreign oil. Of course, it is not within our scope to describe the
manufacture of Peanut oil. The farmer is satisfied with knowing that his
crops are in demand, and need not trouble himself about the methods by
which they are converted into this or that useful commodity.

It is stated that a bushel of peanuts (twenty-two pounds in the hull)
subjected to the hydraulic press, will yield one gallon of oil. The
yield by cold pressure, is from forty to fifty per cent. of the shelled
kernels, though if heat be used, a larger quantity of oil, but of
inferior quality, is obtained. The best Peanut oil is nearly colorless,
with a faint, agreeable odor, and a bland taste, resembling that of
olive oil. It is more limpid than olive oil, and becomes thick when
exposed to a temperature a few degrees below the freezing point of
water. Peanut oil is not one of the drying oils. During the late war it
was extensively employed in the Southern machine shops, and regarded as
superior in its lubricating qualities to whale oil. For burning it is
highly esteemed. The chief consumption of the oil is in making soap. For
the production of oil for soap making, there were imported into
Marseilles, France, from the West Coast of Africa, in one year, peanuts
to the value of over five millions of dollars.

The residuum, or oil cake, may be sold for cattle feed.

=Roasted Peanuts.=--Almost every person residing in the eastern s