Morning journal and courier., 1891-07-24
Corn and Melons.


In the New Haven markets are now to
be seen daily piles of the juicy, succulent
watermelon. The southern crop has been
keeping our northern markets well sup
piled for weeks, and now the price is be-
coming moderately reasonable and the
northern melon crop will before long bring
prices still lower. The melon is one Of the
boons of summer and writer in the Hart
ford Times well expresses the idea in q
timely article on the subject as follows:
The summer excursionist who is privi-
legged to spend the heated term in the
mountains, or among the Thousand ISL
ands, or even by the plunging ocean bill
lows, doesn't take from the hot town quite
all Of it's life, nor all of its sources of en-
joyment. We have all heard of the stufy
little room, which in the seaside or noun
tain hotel the sojourner is forced to put
up with, after leaving the comforts OF
home; but both the narrowness and the
STIFFNESS of these undeniably restricted
quarters have been, probably, little ex-
plants. Beside, one can afford to put
up with some unwonted discomforts, in
order to enjoy exceptional delights. To
be sure, he wouldn't pay any attention to
these, If his lot in life had CHANGED to be
cast right among them. John Howard
Payne, whose old Long Island home at
East Hampton, where he was born, is still
house in fairly good repair, may have hit
the truths bullseye, in his famous song in
celebration of the attractions of home; but,
if he did, the summer pleasure seekers
don't believe it-at least not until their
discomforts elsewhere compel them to
look back with more appreciative glance at
the homes they have left. They are a.
ways seeking for Joy away from home
somewhere, anywhere, if it is only some
what distant; some spot in
ssthe far-off, unattained, and dim"
The go away when the weather is apt to
be at its hottest, and when nature herself
interferes with the everlasting drive and
routine of labor and business, and almost
enforces let-up, and commands an indul-
But they doubtless leave behind them the
opportunity to enjoy some of the summers
best luxuries.
Among these are such homely and pro-
sale but undeniable relishes as green corn
never served at it's best, if at all, in the
seaside hotel, but in reality one of the
greatest table luxuries of all the rolling
year. But, to fully appreciate it, one must
eat it on the day it is plucked from the
stalk. None that is in market is com that
is "picked" on the morning when it ap-
pears on the vegetable stalls; it is all
picked on the preceding afternoon; and
dinner it is not only twenty-four hours from
the stalk, but has lost nearly all of the
fresh and succulent sweetness which makes
fresh green corn the luxury il is. To get
it in the right shape, if one hasn't home
garden of his own, he must make special
arrangements with somebody who has.
The early corn is now appearing.
Another summer luxury now very gen
orally appreciated Though not served daily
at all the seaside or mountain hotels) is the
juicy watermelon. If there is anything
better than a big and thoroughly ripe
melon we don't just now remember what
it is. Thanks to improved transportation
arrangements, big southern melons-some
enormous in bulk and weighing thirty to
forty pounds, or even more-now fill the
market in nearly all our northern cities.
They come, most of them, all the way
from Georgia; but melons just as big and
good might be sent on from North Caro-
lima, at least $50 miles nearer
New York's market. The thorough
ly ripe melon, thoroughly cooled over night
in the refrigerator, makes the most enjoy
able and doubtless the most wholesome
introduction to ones breakfast. Then, if
ever, it can be enjoyed; that is the true
time for the due enjoyment and large ex-
ploration of big melon. 1t is surprising
how much a person wants of it, at such a
time, and how much can be safely dis
posed of.
1t is the true summer luxury. Even dis
tant England, always on the lookout for
luxuries, is trying the experiment of
| Georgia melons. A cargo has just left
| New York for that
| 'sNlisty isle,
Where droops the silver willow
If the Englishmen once get comforta-
| BILE taste of the American watermelon, a
new market will be opened for that prod
uct; perhaps the price will rise-but that
will of course speedily regulate itself; the
law of supply is bound to meet the de-
mand in any commodity. There are thou,
sands of square miles of land, now either
wholly unused, or cultivated to no ade-
quate purpose, in states like Maryland,
| Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Flori.
da, which could be made to pay as we'll,
| given up to watermelons that would yield
the cultivators six cents apiece, as any
crop that would be likely to be planted il
such places. Times.
| Farmers and the Sheffield School
1t is for the farmers of the state to say