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Article: Peanut Butter
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- How Products Are Made
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Gale Research Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Peanut Butter
Background
Wild peanuts originated in Bolivia and northeastern Argentina. The cultivated species,
Arachis hypogaea,
was grown by Indians in pre-Columbian times. The peanut plant is a vinelike plant whose flowerstalks wither and bow to the ground after fertilization, burying the young pods, which come to maturity underground.
Peanuts were introduced to the United States from Africa, but were not considered a staple crop until the 1890s, when they were promoted as a replacement for the cotton crop destroyed by the boll weevil.
The three types of domestic peanuts are the Virginia, Spanish, and Runner-type peanuts. It is mostly the Runner-type peanuts, grown in Alabama, ...