In 1896, Carver started to teach and do research with plants at the
Tuskegee Institute. He taught classes on agriculture, and through his
experiments he found new ways to help the poor, struggling farmers of
the South. Here, farmers had been growing cotton, which wore out the
soil. He showed farmers how to plant different crops like peanuts to
make the soil richer. After a while, farmers did what he said and were
growing more and more peanuts. They were now making more money
from peanuts than from cotton.
Carver developed many uses for the peanut. In fact, he found more
than 300 uses for the peanut, and he became known as the “peanut
man." He received many prizes and awards for his work. He gave
lectures about the uses of peanuts all over the United States and even
spoke to Congress about peanuts in 1921. Meanwhile, Carver began to
experiment with the sweet potato and discovered more than 100
products that could be made from it, including glue for postage stamps.