Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-08-03


the Georgia watermelon crop is almos
unlimited" a southern freight agen
said the other day in New York, Chi
cagO is taking at least four times az
many this year as ever before, and i
there were not plenty of melons in the
Georgia fields they would be scarce il
New York, and consequently dear Blu
there is no danger Of any scarcity; OF
the contrary, the unusual demand will
very likely result in better melon.
reaching the northern cities than evel
before. 1t may be necessary to shiJ
not only 1.-THE standard long-keepin!
kind, but also the more delicate an(
much finer varieties which in ordi
nary seasons rarely reach the north
-ern markets.
Not only are railroads necessary tC
give us early melons, but the railroads
must establish a particular and very
efficient service in the melon season
Ihey do this every year, says the
New York Times, and the result is
early and cheap melons all over the
country.
There were SO many drawbacks in
establishing the business" the agent
continued, that it is almost a wonder
1t was not abundant at the start. Ev
serybody lost money at the beginning
farmers and railroads alike; it took
great perseverance and plenty of CAPT
tai to set the industry going. We all
saW that there was a great opening
but it took some years to teach us how
to bring the producer and the con
sumner together. Here were two mil.
lions of people in New York thirstina
Tor cool melons in June and July, and
they could not get them. There were
hundreds of truckers in Georgia rails.
ing the best watermelons in the world
which they could not sell. The prob
ieln was to bring them together. 1t
hooks easy enough, no doubt; put the
melons on fast trains and rush them
through to market. That was what we
thought and 1 will tell you how it
worked
on must understand that the early
watermelon is one of the few things
that can not be forced in marketable
quantities. We can raise most vegeta-
'bles here in winter under glass, and
even many of the tropical fruits, but
we can not force watermelons for mar
aket. The reason of this is that melon
wines take up so much room that
half dozen of them would fill an en-
tire dollhouse, and the melons could not
profitably be sold for less than So to
x Of +In
ton, and the field was free for us.
Then could depend not only upon the
great New York market, but upon the
cities of the west also; for if early
melons become fashionable in New
York, Chicago and St Louis and other
places would soon want them. In those
early days we had no idea that we
were to supply the whole northern part
of the continent That came naturally
afterward, and the business grew until
now we carry almost as many melons
TO Canada and the northern provinces
as we bring to New York.
1T was about twelve years ago lin
1lSSl1 that we made the first deter
mined effort to bring early watermelonS
do not come TO market before the
middle OF August, and we could land
Georgia melons in this city on the
Both of May Our principal melon
road, the Savannah, Florida and West
elm, taps, with its main line and
branches and connections, almost every
melon county in Georgia, and has
ell "
the Atlantic Coast line and also by the
Savannah and other lines of steamers
We arranged for a fast through melon
train for New York. and gave the grow.
erS due notice that on a certain day
the first train would start. They
brought us plenty of melons, and
beautiful ones they were, such as are
seldom seen in New York nowadays
But the financial result was far from
na.tc> -n@. we brOugnt the Inc4ul.
through all right, but we had 40 tacili
ties for disposing of them quickly
1T took some days to distribute them
and by the time they were ready fol
sale to the consumer they were ready
to be thrown into the river.
Notwithstanding this first failure
We kept at work. The growers were
eager to find u market for their fruit
and we were anxious to do the carry
ing. Subsequent experiments gave bet
ter results, because we made better
arrangements for putting the melons OF
the market quickly. In a short time
we extended the business in Chicago
not only we, but other lines covering
the territory-and when l tell you OF
one of the early results we reached
early-melon business was ten or twelve
years ago. l have known 10 carload.
of melons to be side tracked in Chi
ecago at one time, all refused by the
,conSigneeS on account of their con
.ditlon, and nearly ali in such a state
that they had to be thrown into the
lake. That was in 1888.
1T was easy to see that there was
no chance for either grower or carrier
to make money while the business wa:
in such state, and we took more THAI
a fair share of the blame upon ou
own shoulders and set about improv
ing the service. To what a system w,
soon reduced it 1 can best explain b.
telling you what our arrangements ar,
this year and what they have beer
for several years. The great melol
district of Georgia is in the southwest
ern part of the state, and we EXTENDED
our tracks into Clinch, Lowndes