The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-08-25
Melons in the New York Market

melons IN INC new 1OIA MATAets
The very first melons to strike the
market come from Florida and they
readily bring 81 each. Next the prod
ucts begin to come from Georgia, and
by this time the pickings in Florida
have largely increased. Next melons
are shipped from Charleston, s. c., and
as the season advances they begin to
be brought from Moorhead City, N.
c.. by way of Point Lookout from Pow
elps Point, N. c., through the canal
and sound. and making the sea at Cape
Hatteras. The fruit from Norfolk is
brought by the Old Dominion steam
ships. Up and down the coast the wa
ter melons may be seen in transit piled
high on the decks of the trim little oys-
ter boats. These boats in the winter
season are engaged in carrying the lus-
cious bivalves; then, after few trips
carrying up Irish potatoes from South
ern ports, the watermelon season opens
and keeps them busy until the sweet
potatoes demand a few trips. Up to
| thirty schooner loads in single day
have arrived at this port, but somehow
all the fruit finds a market, though &C.
casionally dealer insisting on certain
price finds himself with lot of soft
fruit on his hands, and is compelled to
throw the stuff overheard. The fruit
coming by the sailing vessels is the
more carefully handled, and there is
less loss, though now and then a sudden
extra lurch may send a score or two
from the deck load bobbing overheard.
At the steamer docks there may often
be seen heap of several hundred
broken melons, about which hover a
crowd of street boys and 'longshore-
men. each greedily breaking out chunks
of the red, succulent meat within and
eating it with great relish and little GER
emonv.
The melon really becomes popular
fruit when the Jersey crop comes in.
This sweeps all the Southern prices
away and they sell down at wholesale
as low as ten dollars per hundred, and
for twenty-five cents the groceryman
can well afford to furnish fine, big
fruit, one which when picked up and
pressed will respond with that peculiar
cracklc from the interior by which an
epicure in melons selects his fruit. The
three most marketable varieties of the
melons are the Spanish, Jersey sweets
and stripes. 1t is common trick with
the guileless countrymen who grow the
melons to cross breed them with pump
kins, and while the result is an I'M
usually large and externally handsome
melon the heart is fibrous. after the
manner of a pumpkin. The cross is
made by dropping a pumpkin seed in
every tenth hill, and the pollen carried
from the pumpkin flowers to the melon
blossoms produces the desired result
Few of these mongrel melons have made
their appearance in market this year.
and they have been rejected, teaching
growers that city patrons want size, but
not at a sacrifice of quality.
Watermelons are not ''tinned'-that
is, they are not put down in hermetical-
ly sealed cans for winter use. They
cannot be successfully desiccated either.
They must be eaten from the rind, the
cooler the better, and out of the total
weight of fruit handled but little goes
into ordinary consumption. About that
watermelon rind there is somewhat of a
mystery. A little is used for throwing
promiscuously about the sidewalk to i'm
peril the lives and limbs of pedestrians,
and for this purpose it is capitally sue
cessful. But not small share of it is
eaten, although it is as indigestible
substance as can be put into the stom-
ach. Some cut it up and palm it off as
"citron'' in sweet preserves. 1t is
chopped up, soaked in mustard and vim
egar, mixed with other odds and ends
of green vegetables, and appears in
cheap restaurants as "chOw chow"
Again it is cut into proper forms, boiled
in strip, seasoned and dried, and is sold
at low prices as "candied lemon" For
this last-named deception very large
quantities of the smooth-coated canta-
loupe is also employed. One chemist in
Georgia has been experimenting, and
estimates that the 81, 500 pounds of mel
on which could be grown on an acre OF
good land would produce seven per
cent. of saccharine matter. and this
2,415 pounds of sugar at ten cents per
pound would represent u gross acreage
value of a crop of melons of S241.5O.
No factories for melon sugar have. how
ever, as yet been established.
The chances are that with the warm
urs WeatHeT pTeNdieHt Ofei JIG Couutiy
the melon crop will be very large and
excellent one. The nigger-heads,
as the dark, globular shaped ones are
called, are by some thought the best,
but much more depends upon the par
ticular soil and the state of the fruit
when picked than upon the variety.
There is 10 be an effort made to export
some specimens this year, one firm on
Vesey pier having an order to ship when
the fruit comes in satisfactory state.
These are for Americans travelling
abroad who wish to enjoy this distinct
lively American production though
thousands of miles from home. Packed
carefully and kept cool, there will be
little difficulty in getting the fruit in
presentable condition to any European
seaport ready to fill its role of pain-pro-
Queer with the unaccustomed European
stomach. a.
Already .'melon cuts' are announced
in many directions. The decimated
fruit will stand in tempting ridges, its
red. cool flesh dotted with the black
seeds. To demolish a dozen of these
slices was an ordinary feat to many
one. After the wonderful DR.. Tanner
showed that there was some merit in
the humble watermelon there was a