The age-herald., 1897-10-10
IHRESHlNG wATERMELoNs.
They Are Raised For the Seeds in Kansas and
 the Pulp Is Thrown Away
rom the Topeka Daiiy Capital.

From the Topeka Daily Capital
 Hagtialnd. Kan., Sept 24.-The waiter melon Harvest is on i'm Kearney county, and for month thsrs will be such scenes dn this prairie region as would make colored folks groan in mental anguish to witness. Possibly they mlgait eroan i'm bodily anguish were they there, for if they chose to fill themselves to the grooming poinp there would be none to say them nay-provided they saved the seeds. For Hhle seeds are the crop, and all else is waste to dispose of which is she trial of the seed Hammers life.
 Melons are grown in Kearney county as corn is grown in corn countiels-by the hundred acres. The settlers at first tried to grow corn and failed because 1t would not rain when rain was needed. Frost and chin1hEbugs killed ahe wheat and grasshoppers ate up the gardens and alfalfa. Half ghe people became daacour- aged and went back east to "wdGe's folks in "IlIenoy." "Mzzoura" or To way Before all had gone it occurred to big eastern seed firm that western Kansas was just the place to grow Snelon seed. A repre sentative was sent to Rear ney county to make contracts with farfn- e1s Only a few were so nearly sub merged in the depths of despair thals they could be 4nduced to grasp at so frail a straw, but those who did have not re- gretted it.
 PaIadoxical as it may seem, 1t was dis covered that a country which is so dry that it won't raise half a ton of corn to the acre, even in the best years, will produce from twenty to fifty tons of mel ons, which scientists tell us are more than 99 per cent. water and do it with a tltait lxeI slf1,l- tunal 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 farmer last year had 150 acres in melonls 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 ithere is uSual- 1y Mttle corn to harvest in the county while the melon yield is always bountl- full The profits are from two to five times greater than could be realized from any other crop that the treacherous cli- mate of western Kansas will permit to grow.
 The cegt of growing an acre of melons is little more than tlnat of growing an screaof corn. and the cost of harvesting is greater chiefly because there is usually little co1ll to harvest in the county, whi1e the melon yield is always bountiful The profits are from three ito five times greater than could be realized from any other crop that nIhe treacherous climate of western Kansas will permit to grew
 Sepaibing the seeds from the melons is am inGersting process. It is done by "phre.Shsng," but not with the ordinary threshAag machine. A special machine is built, having "a huge hopper, at the bottom of which is a cylinder armed W h stout sharp spikes. The cylinder is rum at high spesd by means of am ordinary sweep horse power, with rumbing rod conneoitaon. The melons are thrown heavily into the hopper, so that they break as they fall, and in tWinkling the cylinder teeth have torn them to pieces releasing the seed-bear.ng pulp. The hopper discharges into 8 great cylin- drical screen, set at a slight incline, in