Lot 47: GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER WRITES OF EXPERIMENTS WITH PEANUTS

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER WRITES OF EXPERIMENTS WITH PEANUTS
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER (1864 - 1943) Black-American botanist and the son of slaves, Carver worked his way through school to become a leader in agricultural research and create hundreds of products made possible by the cultivation of peanuts and sweet potatoes. Interesting typed letter signed, 2pp. 8 1/2" x 11", [n.p.], July 21, 1931, a retained copy of a letter to W.F. Cheney, a County Agent for Andalusia, Alabama, discussing some of Carver''s recent experiments with peanut plants. In small part: "... After thirty-six hours of incubation in a moist chamber, kept at a temperature of eighty-five and ninety degrees Fahrenheit, no specific disease developed. The roots and stems remained free from moulds of any kind except certain species of bread moulds which had nothing to do with the field condition of the peanuts in question. These particular plants impress me a having been injured at sometime in the cultivating process. I was impressed with the large size of the vines and the small number of peanuts they contained..." He goes on to give Cheney a list of characteristics to look out for that might indicate disease in his plants: "...Wilting plants, which have a white mould on the roots and stem of the plant often forming little mustard seed like bodies on the ground and around the stem ... Wilting plants with a pale pink mould on the roots and stems just above the ground ... Wilting plants with the same white mould ... sparingly on the roots and stems, with a decided rotting of the nuts..." Carver signs as "G. W. Carver" in black ink at the conclusion. Products derived by Carver from soil-enriching crops such as soybeans and peanuts helped to revolutionize the Southern economy by lessening its dependence on cotton, which heavily depleted the soil. His programs ultimately developed 300 products derived from peanuts alone. The letter shows original folds, with two small tears on the left edge of the first page, else very good.