The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-10

They grow melons in Kearny county as
corn is grown in corn countieS-by the
hundred acres. The settlers at first tried
10 grow corn and failed because it
wouldn't rain when rain was needed.
Frost and chinchbugs killed wheat and
grasshoppers ate up the gardens and al
falfa. Half the people became discouraged
and went back east to 'wife'S folks" in
'IllenOy," "Mizzoura" or "Ioway." Be
fore all had gone it occurred to a big
eastern seed firm that Western Kansas
was just the place to grow melon seed. A
representative was sent to Kearny coun-
ty to make contracts with farmers. Only
a few were so nearly submerged In the
depths of despair that they could be in
duced to grasp at so frail straw, but
those who did have not regretted it.
ParadoXical as it may seem, it was
discovered that a country which is so
dry that it won't raise an average of
half ton of corn to the acre, even in
the best years, will produce from twenty
to fifty bushels of melons, which scien-
lists tell us are more than 80 per cent.
water, and DO it with a certainty that
makes the best agricultural sections of
the east blush for their shortcomings.
From small beginnings the industry has
grown until now q good portion of the
farmers of Kearny county and some in the
neighboring counties are engaged in it.
and nearly all the melon seed used in the
United States comes from that semi-arid
region. One farmer last year had $50
acres in melons, and numbers had In more
or less than 100 acres.
The cost of growing an acre of melons
is little more than that of growing an
acre of corn. and the cost Of harvesting
is greater chiefly because there is usually
little corn to harvest in that county while
the melon yield is always bountiful. The
profits are always from one to five times
greater than could be realized from any
other crop that the treacherous climate
of Western Kansas will permit to grow.
Separating the seeds from the melons
is an interesting process. 1t is done by
'threshing," but not with the ordinary
threshing machine. A special machine is
built, having huge copper, at the bot
tom of which is a cylinder armed with
stout sharp spikes. The cylinder is run
at high speed by means of an ordinary
sweep horsepower, with tumbling rod
connection. The melons are thrown heaV-
lily into the hopper, so that they break as
they fall, and in a twinklng the cylinder
teeth have torn them to pieces, releasing
the seed-bearing bulb. The hopper dis
charges into a great cylindrical screen,
set at a slight incline, in which long arms
revOlve on an axis, stirring up the masses
of rinds and pulp and seeds and continu-
ally pushing the seeds and pulp through
the screen INTO vat as the mass moves
from the hopper down the incline.
BY the time the mass reaches the lower
end Of the incline it has lost all the pulp
and seeds and consists only of rinds, which
are thrown with a scoop onto the waste
pile. When the pile of rinds becomes so
large as to be troublesome il is not moved
simply because it is so much easier to
move the threshng machine. When
threshing machine runs steadily it is ne
cessary TO move it at least every third day
The seeds and pulp which come through
the threshing machine together are stored
in great watts or tanks, water added and
the whole left for two or three days to
ferment. In the process of fermentation
the pulp separates from the seeds, which
sink to the bottom of the tanks. The pulp
is then ladled out, the seeds washed sew
eral times with water and spread out on
sheets in the sun to dry
After that all that remains is to sack
the seeds, ship them to the New York.
Philadelphia or Detroit seed house for
which they had grown, and study up ways
for spending the money which they will
bring.