The record-union., 1895-06-01
ROYAL BAKING POWDER
Highest all in Leayenng Pow-Lasest u s. Cow Report
F&}>!a!ll! a. kFsktI's
ABSOLUTELY PURE
MILLIONS OF MELONS.
Georgia Finds More Profit in Then
Nowadays Than In Cotton.

Georgia Finds More Profit in Them
Nowadays Than In Cotton.
Townsville, GA, is the center of the
watermelon district. which covers an
area of about $50 miles square, including
the southwestern portion of the State and
the northwestern portion of Florida, and
when the season opens the freight de-
partments of the railroads in this section
move their headquarters TO Thomasville.
and the telegraph company sends down
five extra operators to handle the in
creased business occasloned by the pur-
chases and shipment of the crop. The
season lasts about two months, Begin
ming with July and ending with August,
and last year between 1000 and 5000 car
loads were shipped outside the State.
carrying an average OF l ZOO melons to
car, W hich makes total of about 9,0O0,-
900 melons contributed to the Northern
and Western appetite.
That the crop Of the approaching sea-
son will be even greater than that OF last
year is indicated by the amazing fact that
81, 900 pounds of seeds have already been
sold at the single town of Monticello, and
as my informant remarked:
'That's right smart lot of them, when
you come to consider that watermelon
seed doesn't weigh nothing"
/ can obtain no complete report OF the
sales of seeds from any other town, but
the dealers here tell me the demand is
greater than ever before, and one grocer
claims to have sold $1,000 worth this
month.
The watermelon business has become
systematized during the last three or four
years. and the profits are 30 great and SO
certain that one would think every body
would go into it. But there is curious
conservatism among the older planters,
and prejudice against all innovations in
agriculture and everything else, 30 that
the old-fashioned people stick to cotton
even at 5 cents pound, and look upon
watermelon raising as degraded ankee
trick. While it is true that few enter
prising Yankees taught these people the
profits in watermelOns, great many OF
the younger native farmers have gone
into the business and done equally as
we'll.
The first ripe melons that come in
bring prices that are comparatively
enormous, often $500 car, or from 10 to
20 cents each, but as they get moro plenty
the rates come down, and about August
LIST, at the hight of the season, farmers
are lucky to get S25 a car. although there
is fair profit even at that rate. The
average for the year is about $50 car,
and as an acre Of good ground will pro-
duce several carloads it will be easily
seen that there are few more profitable
crops. No agent will buy melons weigh
ing less than eighteen pounds. The
smaller ones, called ''culls." are sold in
the local market and fed to hogs and cat
tie, and hundreds Of thousands of them
are left to rot upon the groundi
The greatest item OF expense in raising
melons is to carry them to market. All
the cultivation necessary is to pillow the
ground and plant the seeds and keep the
weeds down by going over the soil two
or three times during the season with a
small pillow or harrow. and then pulp
the melons when they are ripe. Fifteen
or twenty dollars an acre is ample to
cover all possible expenses, except the
hauling, but they are 30 bulky and light
that it takes several wagon loads to fill
a car, and most of the farms are q con-
siderable distance from railway station.
1t is a curious fact that the soil abso-
lutely refuses to furnish two crops of
melons in succession. and it never pays
to plant the same field oftener than once
in three or four years. The wisest farm
ers alternate between corn, cotton and
watermelons, making the latter crop
every three years.-Chicago Record.