Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-16
THRAsHING OF MELONS.
Seed Houses Depend Upon the SEMI
Arid Belt for Their supply.

Seed Houses Depend Upon the SEMI
Arid Belt for Their supply.
Kansas City Letter to the Chicago Record.
The watermelon harvest is on in Kearny
county, Kansas, and for month there will
be such scenes in that prairie region as
would make colored folk groan in mental
anguish to witness. Possibly they might
grcan 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-provided 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.
They grow melons in KeaTny county as
corn is grown in the corn counties-by the
hundred acres. The settlers at first tried
to grow corn and failed because it Wouldn [
rain when rain was needed. Frost and
chinchbugs killed the wheat ard grasshop-
peIs ate UP the gardens and alfalfa. Half
the people became discouraged and went
back east to 'wife's folks" in 'Ilenoy,"
"Mizzoura' or "Ioway.' Before 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 county to make contracts
with farmers. Only few were SO nearly
submerged in the depths of despair that
they could be induced to grasp at so frall
a straw, but those who did have not re-
GREETED 1t.
Paradoxical as 1t may seem, It was dis
covered that country which is SO dry that
1t won't raise an average of half a ton Of
corn to the acre, even in the best years,
viii produce from twenty to fifty tons Of
melons. which scientists tell us are more
tran 80 per cent water, and do it with a
certainty that makes the best agricultural
sections Of the east blush for their short
cCmingS.
From small beginnings the industry has
grown until now good portion of the
farmers of kearny county and some in the
nr{ ~ fas.p
nearly all the melon seed used in the Unit
ed States comes from that seni-arid region
one farmer last year had $50 .lcres in
EielonS, 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 beautiful. The profits are
from two to five times greater than could
De realized from any other crop that the
tIeacherous climate of western Kansas will
permit to grow.
Separating the seeds from the melons is
an interesting process. 1t is lone by
thrashing," but not with the ordinary
thrashing machine. special machine is
pullt, having huge hopper. at the bottom
OF which is cylinder armed with stout
sharp spikes. The cylinder is run at high
speed by means of an ordinary sweep
hi rse-power, with tumbling rod con nacti m
hopper, so that they break as they fall
and in a twinkling the cylinder teeth have
torn them to pieces, releasing the seed
bearing pulp. The hopper discharges into
great cylindrical screen, set at slight
incline, in which long arms reyolye on an
axis, stirring up the mass of rinds and
pulp and seeds, and continually 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 mas
lest all the pulp and seeds and consi.; ats
only OF rinds which are thrown with a
scoop onto the waste pile. When the nile
OF rinds becomes so large as to be trouble
some, 1t Is not moved, simply because II IL
SO much easier to move the thrashine ma
cline. When a thrashing machine runs
steadily. 1t is necessary to move 1t at least
every third day.
The seeds and Lulp which come through
the thrashing 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 nuln
separates from the seeds, which sink to the
bottom of the tanks. The pulp IS then
ladled out, the seeds washed several times
with water and spread out on sheets in the
sun to dry
After that all that remains is to ga tx the
seeds. ship them to the New York. Phila-
delphia or Detroit seed house cor which,
trey were grown, and study I'D ways for
spending the money which they will bring.