Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1885-09-17
A FLORIDA MELON MARKET.
The Melon Mans Queer Crnft-QuIcl
Melon Gsr0sgfI Rs

end to end, they would make streak Of
green from here to Cape Horn, or some
other jumping-of place. The total
amount paid for them by the wholesalers
would be equal to an appreciable frac-
tion of the national debt, and the total
paid by the consumers would be repre-
sented by that fraction with its de-
nominator divided by two. Allowing
that so many feet and inches Of rain fell
in Florida during the rainy season, and
that ninety per cent. of a melon is water,
it could be easily computed how much of
the rainy season went into the melon
crop. Then there would be the collie,
cholera morbus and Jamaica ginger
figures to wrestle with, and the mortuary
statistics to be put in convenient shape
for reference.
The watermelon market place is an in
teresting point even to person not Of a
statistical turn Of mind. It is on the
river front. Steps lead down to the
water for convenience in unloading the
melons from the small boats in which
they are brought from both banks Of the
river for considerable distances up and
down the stream. Boats begin to arrive
early in the morning, and they keep com
ing all day. 1t is surprising to seewhat
loads of melons some of these shaky old
craft bring into the slip; sometimes un-
der full sail, in spanking breeze, the
load topped off by two or three drenched
colored men singing songs; sometimes
with a white ash breeze, slowly and la
boriouslv; almost invariably with the
water in the boat nearly on level with
that outside. The melon, being COM
posed so largely of wetar, is the best and
safest kind of ballast, with the single
exception of an all-water ballast. The
kinds of boats used by the melon men
are various and interesting, and even as
tonishing. There is no lack Of smart
cat-rigeed and sloop-rigged boats from
eighteen to thirty feet in length. They
are built shallow, SO as to be able to.
skim over the broad ''hat' Of the river,
and are about evenly divided between
rounding and fiat bottoms. Then there
are craft in all stages of decay, which
evidently were neat and worthy boatsi in
their time, but have degenerated to the
last use 10 which q boat can be put be-
fore it falls to pieces-melon carrying
But the most interesting craft are those
which the colored men build with no
tools but a hammer. axe, and augur, and
no material save unplaned hard
pine boards and scantlings, cut
nails, and second hand canvass
and ropes These hulks have no lines
but straight ones. They are of the gen
eral shape of potato bin, though some
times the ends are hlanted up scow
fashion. Instead of a keel or center
board there are boards pinned through
one corner to the outside of the boat, and
the one on the lee side is let down into
the water when sailing. They are called
the lee boards, and serve well the pur-
pose for which they are intended. Some
of these boats are provided with cabins
that are quite stately and picturesque
smokehouse-shaped structures, towering
eight or ten feet above the rail, clap
boarded horizontally, with door in
front, and a slit in the rear for the tiller
to work in, and with seats around the
sides elaboratelY cushioned with calico
stuffed with Spanish moss. It is an in
spring sight to see one Of these vessels
approaching the town with all sails set
and closehauled, her leeboard down, the
wind blowing half gale, and the waves
breaking over among the melons. ''The
seclusion which the cabin grants, !" even
though the cabin is not palatial, is at
such times acceptable.
From the market the melons are dis
tributed in all directions, mostly in mule
carts. A venerable colored man has a
melon emporium in adrygoods box at the
head of the flight Of steps leading down
to the water, and he has the reputation
of securing the cream of the seasons
crop for his customers. He must have
become a capitalist long ago. The col
ored people are acknowledged to be the
most expert melon eaters in the land.
They are never put to it for methods, SO
long as they can get the melon; but their
favorite method is to split the melon
lengthwise, then scoop out and eat the
red part of one half with spade shaped
contrivance whitfield out of a cypress
shingle, after which the other half is
treated in the same manner, and the ex-
pert goes in search Of another melon.
Watcrmelons grow well in Florida. "A
Florida land agent from Pope county re-
Gently said that he was compelled to
admit that there was one great drawback
to successful melon culture in his section
namely, that the vines grew 50 fast
that they wore out the young melons
dragging them over the ground. The
colored people say that melons grown on
the edges Of swamps give the fever to
persons who eat them. The theory is
that the germs, or microbes, or whatever
produces that malady, are taken up in
the water that goes into the melon.
No medical man has ever been made a
peer in England They do not fulfill the
conditions indispensable to ennoble-
ment. A peer must be wholly discon-
-notoa n;.t, tmo5. i. u, ..4;... -. -. .