Wanda Whitaker, age 12, of Montrose, Ga., for her questions

Why is Georgia called the Goober State?

Goobers, of course, are peanuts and when it comes t o producing these luscious little ground peas, Georgia heads the list. Every year, the Georgia goobers in the shells total more than two and a half million tons. North Carolina, second on the list, produces only about half a s many peanuts. We eat some of the crop plain, some as peanut butter, some as salad and cooking oil and some as margarine. Some is fed to our farm animals. Peanut oil is used in medicines, in making plastics, in cleaning materials and in explosives.

Georgia can well be proud of its goober crop and the title of the Goober State is justly earned. Officially, however, Georgia=s nickname is the Empire State of the South. In size and industry it corresponds with New York, which was originally named the Empire State.