Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-12-13

1t Never Rains-A Partial Explanation
of the Mystery.
When stranger visits these "staket
plains of Texas, he soon learns not to bt
surprised at anything he sees. He has hcart
OF this region all his life as portion o.
the Great American desert and one O.
the dfiest parts OF the world He finds by
actual observation that few crops will grow
here on account Of the dryness. 1t seems
TO be too dry for corn, wheat, oats cotton,
garden vegetables or fruit of any descrip
tlon. The few farmers in the country con.
tent themselves with raising hay or sor-
ghum cane. Yet, strange to relate, there
Is one>plant in whose favor nature chooses
to make an exception. She seems TO have
made law forbidding food plants to grow
III this region and then arbitrarily to have
suspended this law in one instance. To
heighten the audacity of this move on her
part she seems to have racked her brain
Tor the vegetable growth which we would
least expect to find here. The one She Sc
lected was the watermelon.
Every farmers hoy knows that ortlinari-
~ the watermelon requires a great deal of
moisture before it will grow well. 1t also
generally requires shade. In the east the
watermelon patch is frequently in some
co01 or moist corner of the cornfield, where
the growing vines will soon be overshad
owed by the stalks of corn. This is not
merely for the benefit of such noighboring
boys as may desire to eat watermelons
without disturbing the general public, but
ii is also for the benefit of the melons them
selves.
Boys accustomed to look for melons in
such places as that would be surprised to
find them in this country lying ont on the
open prairie, where the hot sun glares
down on them all day long, with never
cloud to interpose and never tree or a
bush for shade as far as the eye can reach
Sometimes not drop of rain falls from
the time the seed is planted in the spring
until the melon is eaten in the early sum
mer. Yet they thrive And such melons
as there are tool Long, slender ones and
big round ones; light green ones, dark
green ones and striped ones-and all pom
dcrous, big fellows. To come some morn
ing about sunrise, while it is yet COOL and
see vast stretch of such fruit nesting
down amid the short curly mesquite grass
on some 10 or so acres of land is enough
to make white mans mouth water like
that of horse in n field of new clover and
to make black man drop dead in his
tracks from arrangement of the heart
functions. This is nothing, though, com
pared to coming to such q patch about
noon when the vertical rays of the sun
are pouring down at their fercest and
when your throat is parched with thirst
that is tiercer still. At such time rs this
you slip your left arm through the bride
rein of your tired pony, lift some long,
striped melon with both hands, drop Il
and allow it to break in some half dozen
pieces. Then you gulp down great mouth
fuls of the juicy, watery, red pulp and for
get that there is not n river or creek or
spring or drop of surface water of any kind
for 80 miles around. Then you pause for
a moment and think of the wonderful
power that can enable the small vine to
find so much water in so dry land. Then
you break one or two especially big, juicy
melons for the benefit of your pony, who
has already been shifting at them u little
impatiently. If you neglect either this
thought or this deed, you are a meaner
brute than this Same pony-which is say
ing great deal.
The method Of cultivating watcrmelons
on the staked plains is comparatively sim
pie. In consists in making a small hole
in the ground and dropping a seed into it.
After this the training of the melon is left
to the melon itself. In some places you
find what are known as wild watermclops
but it is commonly believed that these
como up whore tame melons have been
thrown away, and their seeds have found
chance lodgmont in the soil of the prai
RTE.
It is easy to find o partial explanation
rs to how the melons subsist in such dry
region. The explanation involves an I'M
Outstanding of tho water supply on tht
plains, which in itself is remarkable
matter Dry as this country is, one can
find water anywhere in it by digging about
50 feet for it. BY boring IA hole to that
depth and inserting two inch pipe one
obtains water supply which it is impos
sibo to exhaust 1t seems that u vast
sheet of water underlies this whole region.
This sheet Of water is evidently conSidcra-
bly higher than the level of the country
Just south and east of the staked plains.
Tho plains proper begin with Polo DIVA
Canyon, where rocky bluffs suddenly rise
preoipitously to the height of from 100 to
200 feet. The level of the vast sheet Of
subterraucan water referred to is evidently
from 20 to $50 feet higher than this ada
cont country, and why the water does not
run out is q mystery Some peculiar for
nation of rocks like the rim Of washba-
sin must account for it. This water is
clear and cool, and it is as good for all
purposes as any in the world. Many peo-
pie who have studied the matter believe
that by using windmills to draw this wa
ter to the surface for purposes of irrigation
the whole problem Of agriculture in this
arid country can eventually be solved
There are several reasons why the Pan
handle" of Texas has not attracted any
more attention than it has in the water
melon markets of the world. To begin
with, the only railroad passing through
the country is the Fort Worth ana Denver.
Many carloads of melons are shipped over
this line every season to Denver, but they
are all consumed in the Rocky mountain
region, and hence attract little or no at
tcntion in the east. Then, again, the aver
age Panhandler openly disregards the
scriptural injunction about not despising
the day Of small things Unless he can
market 10 or II carloads he thinks it is
700 small a matter to be foohng with. He
is generally stockraiser and considers
ANYTHING of an agricultural nature as