Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-07-28
LUSCIOUS WATERMELON.
The Delicious Fruit Being Eaten BY
Hundreds.
An Expert Tells How to Select a Crisp Srslry
One.
-.

| The watermelon season has been with
us for a long time and the great greeni;ll
| rattlesnake hide once more delights the
| eye, and the red luscious inside delights
the palate of the person who has enough
| negro blood in him to relish good thin.
| in this line when he sees It,
| what is 81 tempting as a luscious mel
| on cut i'm fancy designs that has just
| come OFF the ice and Is ds sweet and re-
! freshing as a drink of cold soda. There
| are those who. of course, do not care for
| the fruit, but the average man and WON.
| an dote on them. People who have an
| aversion TO water even recognize the su-
| periority of the watermelon over other
! fruit, regardless of the fact that the mel.
| on contains but about four per cent of
| solid matter and the rest is all water.
| Our first melons come from Florida AMI
| then come the ones from the Gcorui,
| helds. Later they come from all around
| and we even see them from far AWAY
| Texas
There are a lot Of things about water.
| melons and other melons which the ,yer-
age person doesn't know. Look at the
fruits antiquity After the exodus. when
l
lust for flesh. they remembered with
parched and feverish mouths the melon.
which they did eat in Egypt freely"
Nothing tastes quite so sweet and good
10 the average palate as a melon that
has been stolen from a patch the owner
of which is known to lie awake nights
with shotgun 10 guard his crop. Peo-
pie have weakness for free melons to-
la
antique time Of old Ramcses in Egypt.
In fact, in the southern watermelon dis
tricts planters sures protection
against thieves is a surplus crop; he must
give away all he can spare 10 save what
he requires for his own use and for mar
ket.
\ surplus is the growers only protec. |
ton OF the southern melon farms" said |
a man who knew at the steamboat wharf |
recently, 10 a Journal man. In the first |
place it saves annoyance. keeps every
thing and everybody in good humor and |
good working order and makes IN |
wheels Of life run smoothly one day a |
Southern grower and shipper said to me
The ideal melon patch at time Of bear
ing is tempting to the senses and tn. |
planter who raises melons for his own |
use. not commercially-in conservative |
districts there is traditional prejudice |
against selling melons-puts "A safeguard |
about his patch that is better than "A |
barbwire fence or a shotgun by announc-
ing that his melons are 10 be had for the |
asking-enough and to sAare for all on
the place. If only he may be allowed his |
pick Of the choicest for his own use
While the forerunners Of the great an
nual watermelon output come in May or |
early in June from Florida. the advance |
guard of the Georgia and Texas crop Is |
not many days behind.
Do you know how TO select a good wa |
termelon? The rules are many and vari |
Gus. sage says that you can tell a |
good melon by pressing its sides. tapping |
on IL with your knuckles and holding it |
to your ears. In good. well developed |
ripe melon you will hear peculiar sound |
Of crispness, like that in breaking Il stalk |
of celery. Another says that a more |
scientific way is this: Lay the melon on |
its back-that IL. with the part whtened |
or yelowed by contact with the earth in |
growing looking YOU in the face-and
scratch the skin of this whitened par;
with your finger nail. If the skin is ten
sure of your fingers, so that you can
with difficulty pierce it with your nail.
YOU may gamble on having fine melon.
But watermelon picking is something
like palmistry. You have rules to go by
and there certain plain signs that |
mean certain things. yet there are many |
other marks and tokens to modify the |
original and more conspicuous ones, so
that The more you learn on the subject |
the less sure of the ground you are, ami |
only nice adjustment and counter-bai-
ancing of conditions means success. A
southern colored woman who was a great
success in going over the fields and |
marking ripe melons for the men 10 pick
was asked TO explain her accomplish
ment. She said:
How does | tell a ripe melon? Partly |
by dis yere little kinkle sproutin out by |
the stem and partly by the yellowncss
underneath and partly by the sound when
thump il. Now the little kinke on the
stem. when it dries and shrivels up,
shows that the melon bout ripenin. and
the underneath part. what is always
bound to be more bleach out than the
rest. has got a yellow tinge to it. Vel
low creepin' round the edge of the bleach |
place. dat "A sign the heart ripenin. most |
ripe enough to pull, but all these signs |
don't tell whether no the melon better |
be left to stand a day or two to make II |
more better. and you can't spicion the |
real state of it till you thump 1t couple |
of times and study good to make sure.
You can tell a little by trying the weight, |
whether too light or dead heavy. A mel
on a day over its time is soft, just a lit
tie and if it pick too soon you lose the |
sugary taste