The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-11-04
TfsRAsHING WATERMELoNs.
Raised for the Seeds in Kansas and
the Pulp Is Thrown Away.

Inc water HltlOn harvest IL Ol ia
Kearney county, and for month there
will be such scenes in this prairie re-
gion as would make colOred folks groan
in mental anguish to witness. Possibly
they might groan in bodily anguish
were they there, for if they chose to fill
themselves to the grooming point there
would be none to say them nay-pro-
vided they saved the seeds. For the
seeds are the crop and all else is waste,
to dispose of which is the trial of the
seed ff1mer's life.
Melons are grown in Kearney county
as corn is grown in corn counties-by
the hdndred acres. The settlers at first
tried Fo grow corn and failed because
it wouldn't rain when rain was needed.
Frost dpd chinchbugs killed the wheat
and grasshoppers ate up the gardens
and alfalfa. Half the people became
discouraged and went back east to
"wife's FOLKS" in "Illenoy," "Mizzoura"
or ''Ioway.' Before all had gone it oc-
Cured to a big eastern seed firm that
western Kansas was just the place to
grow melon seed. a representative was
sent to Kearney county to make con-
tracts with farmers. Only a few were
so dearly submerged in the depths of
dess air that they could be induced to
grasp at so frail straw, but those who
did hayo rot regretted il.
Paradoxical as it may seem, it was
discovered that a country which is so
| dry that it won't raise an average half
a ton of corn to the acre, even in the
best years, will produce from 20 to so
tons of melons, which scientists tell us
! are more than 90 per cent. water, and
do it with certainty that makes the
| best agricultural sections of the east
| blush for their shortcomings.
From small beginnings the industry
has grown until now a good portion of
the farmers in Kearney county, and
some in the neighboring counties, are
engaged in it, and nearly all the melon
seed used in the United States comes
from this semi-arid region. One farm
er last year had $50 acres in melons, and
numbers had more or less than 100
| acres.
The cost of growing an acre of mel
| = =
an acre of corn, and the cost of harvest
ing is greater chiefly because there is
usually little corn to harvest in the
county, while the melon yield is always
bountiful. The profits are from two to
five times greater than could be realized
from any other crop that the treacher
Gus climate of western Kansas will per-
NIT 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 a huge hopper, at the
| bottom of which is a cylinder armed
with stout sharp spikes. The cylinder
is run at high speed by means of an or
binary sweep horse power with tum-
| bling rod connection. The melons are
thrown heavily into the hopper, so that
| they break as they fall, and in a twink
| ling the cylinder teeth have torn them
| to pieces, releasing the seed-bearing
pulp. The hopper discharges into a
| great cylindrical screen, set at a slight
incline, in which long arms revolve on
| an axis, stirring up the mass of rinds
and pulps and seeds, and continually
| pushing the seeds and pulp through the
| screen into a 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 scoop onto the waste
| pile. When the pile of rinds becomes so
| large as to be troublesome it is not
moved, simply because it is much easier
| to move the threshing machine. When
threshing machine runs steadilyi it is
necessary to move it at least every third
| day.
The seeds and pulp which come
through the threshing machine togeth-
er are stored in great watts or tanks,
| water is added and the whole is left for
/ two or three days to ferment. In the
process of fermentation the pulp sep
| arates from the seeds, which sink to
| the bottom of the tank. The pulp is
| then ladled out, while the seeds are
washed several 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 were grown, and study up
, ways of spending the money which they
will bring.-Topeka Capital.