Part 13 (1/2)

Confectioners use great quant.i.ties of chestnuts. In Lyons there are establishments where as many as two hundred persons are employed in preparing them.

The nuts are first peeled, and then boiled in clear water, which removes the thin coating next the kernel. They are then placed in a sirup flavored with Mexican vanilla, in which they remain for about three days. After draining, they are coated with vanilla or chocolate and packed in attractive boxes. In this form they are worth forty-five or fifty cents a pound.

A BAG OF PEANUTS

Last summer Harry's parents took him with them on a visit to Virginia.

Harry has always lived in New York City, and the country life of the South was very interesting to him.

They visited friends who live on a beautiful _plantation_, as the farms in the South are called. A driveway lined with grand old trees leads through the flower-studded lawn up to the retired manor house, whose wide verandas completely circle it round.

Beyond the house are the stables where work horses, driving horses, and saddle horses are kept; and beyond these is the pretty little boathouse, standing on the bank of a small river that winds its way through the plantation.

The morning after Harry arrived, his friend Bert asked him if he would like to go across the river to see the men harvest peanuts.

Now whenever Harry had wanted peanuts, he had always gone to a stand and bought a sack. He had never thought about where they came from. He had heard of shaking nuts from trees, so he supposed that they were going to the woods.

He was therefore much surprised when Bert took him to a field across the river where men were plowing vines from the ground.

”Do peanuts grow in the ground?” he asked.

”Why, of course they do,” answered Bert.

”I thought that nuts grew on trees,” said Harry.

”Father says that the peanut is not a _real_ nut,” replied his friend.

”He says they should be called _ground nuts_ or _ground peas_.” He pulled up one of the vines, and the boys threw themselves down under a tree to examine it.

When the small clods of soil clinging to the roots of the plant had been removed, Harry saw a number of pods which he recognized as peanuts.

Opening one of the pods, Bert took out the kernels.

”These,” said he, ”are the _seeds_, and they are planted much as other seeds are.

”Before they are planted the sh.e.l.l must be removed, but we have to be careful not to break the thin skin that covers the kernel. If that be broken, the seed will not grow.

”The kernels are planted about one foot apart, in rows that are, as you see, about three feet apart. Sometimes they are planted by hand and sometimes by machinery.”

”I wonder if peanuts are raised in the country around New York,” said Harry.

”No, I think not,” replied Bert, ”for they are very easily killed by frost. Great quant.i.ties are raised in North Carolina and in Tennessee.

Father says that the negroes of western Africa raised them long, long before they were known in the United States. He says that they are a very important article of food there, and that whole villages take part in the planting and harvesting.

”After the vines blossom,” continued Bert, ”a very strange thing happens.”

”What is it?” asked Harry.