The Portland daily press., 1895-11-09
MELONS FROM DUST.
Only Fruit That Will Grow in the
Staked Plains.

1t Never Rains-A Partial Explanation
OF the Mystery.
When a stranger visits these "staked
plains of Texas, he soon learns not to be
surprised at anything he sees. He has heard
of this region all his life as a portion Of
the "Great American desert" and one Of
the driest 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-
tion. 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 20 grow
in this region and then arbitrarily to have
suspended this law in cne instance. To
heighten the audaNty of this move on her
part she seems 20 have racked her brain
for the vegetable growth which we would
least expect to find here. The one she se-
iected was the watermelon.
Every farmers boy knows that ordinari-
ly the watermelon requires great deal Of
moisture before it will grow we'll It also
watermelon patch is frequently in some
cool or moist corner of the cornfeld, where
the growing vines will soon be overshad-
owed by the stalks of corn. This is not
merely for the benefit of such neighboring
boys as may desire to eat watermelons
without disturbing the general public, but
it is also for the benefit of the melons them
selves.
,4,o Z,1 Co.. Il H.
such places as that would be surprised to
find them in this country lying out on the
open prairie, where the hot sun glares
down on them ail day long, with never
cloud to iDterpose and never a tree or a
bush for shade as far as the eye can reach.
Sometimes not a drop of rain falls from
the time the seed is planted in the spring
until the melon is eaten in the ISL sum
NOR. Yet they thrive. And such nelons
as there are too! Long, slender ones and
big round ones; light green ones, dark
green ones and striped ones-1nd all pom
derous, big fellows. 70 tels|; 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 40 or 80 acres of land is enough
to make white mans mouth water like
that of horse in a field of new clover and
to make black man drop dead in his
tracks from derangemont of the heart
functions. This is nothing, though, COM
pared to coming to such 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 f1ercer still At such time as this
you slip your left arm through the bride
rein of your tired pony, lift some long,
striped melon with both hands, drop it
and allow it to break in some half a dozen
pieces. Then you gulp down great mouth-
fuls of the juicy, watery, red pulp and for
get that there is not 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
fad so much water in SO dry q land. Then
you break one or two especially big, juicy
melons for the benefit ef your pony, who
has already been shifting at them little
inpatiently. If You neglect either this
thought or this decd, you are a meaner
brute than this Same pony-Wh1ch Is say
ing great deal.
The method of cultivating watermelons
on the staked plains is comparatively SIM
DIG. LII COuSlSUS Ill Alt1hl4G es o11all AiOAo
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 waternaelons.
but it is commonly believed that these
come up where tame melons have been
thrown away, and their seeds have found
chance lodgment in the soil Of the prai-
rie.
&rH Hx,I &saI nxrx11o %fnr1
as to how the melons subsist in such a'dry
region. The explanation involves an I'M
derstanding of the water supply on the
plains, which in itself is remarkable
matter. Dry as this country is, ono can
find water anywhere in 1t by digging about
30 feet for It, By boring hole to that
depth and inserting a two inch pipe one
sbtains water supply which 1t Is impos-
sible to exhaust. 1t seems that vast
sheet of water underlies this whole region.
This sheet of water is evidently considera-
bly, higher than the level of the country
just south and east of the staked plains.
The plains proper begin with Polo Duga
Canyon, where rocky bluffs suddenly rise
precipitously to the height IF from 100 to
200 feet Tie level of the vast sheet Of
oubterranean water referred to is evidently
IrOIn ~ W LOU lSdo llSuoL uAdu UAiS nuJ1-
cent country, and why the water does not
run out is a 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 1t has in the water
melon markets of the world. To begin
with, the only railroad passing through
the country is the Fort Worth and Denver
Many carloads of melons are shipped over
This line every season to Denver, but they
sre all consumed in the Rocky mountain
region, and hence attract little or no at
tention 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 10 carloads he thinks it is
too small q matter to be fooling with. He
iS oaperally n StocEraiser and considers