Daily camera., 1897-11-17
WATERMELON Ti.RASHING.
The Melons Raised for the Seed
e. in Kansas.
An Industry That Is Peculiar to Tha I
State and Is Growing More
Profitable Than Any
other Crop.

Ihe watermelon harvest is on IN
? Kearney county, and for a month there
will be such scenes in this prairie re-
gion is 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 groaning 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 farmers life.
Melons are grown in Kearney county
as corn is grown in corn couDties-by
the hundred acres. The settlers at first
tried to grow corn and failed because
it wouldn't rain when rain was needed.
Frost and 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 representatives
sent to Kearney county to make con-
tracts with farmers. Only few were
so nearly submerged in the depths of
despair that they could be induced to
= grasp at so frail straw, but those who
did have not regretted it.
ParadoXical as 1t may seem, it was
discovered that 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 80 per cent. water, and
do it with certainty that makes the
/. best agricultural sections of the east
J.blush for their shortcomings.
From small beginnings the industry
has grown until now 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
ons is little more than that of growing
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
i, from any other crop that the treacher-
Gus climate of western Kansas will per-
nit to grow.
Separating the seeds from the melons
Us 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
dinary sweep horse power with tum-
Ling 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 OF
am axis, stirring up the mass of rinds
and puips 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 inclinesit has lost all the pul p and
seeds and consists only of rinds, which
F'are thrown with scoop onto the waste
pile. When the pile of rnds 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 steadily it is
necessary to move it at least every third
day.
The seetls ana pup which come
through the threshing machine togeth-
a are stored in great vats 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.
Aftef 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
viii hring.-Topeka Capital.