The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-09


Although the season is still young. more
cantaloupes and watermelons have
reached the northern markets than
ever before in the history of the com
mission men, In the last week of July
carloads of melons were to be had for
the asking in Jersey City. Other car
loads at Washington stood open to the
longing of the passing darkey boy. The
melon belt, which reaches from Oterc
county in Colorado in a broad band
saggang somewhat southwark and fin
any toucning the southern Atlantic
coast, has borne fruitfully throughout
its entire length
This year the acreage, for two rea-
sons, has been vastly increased. During
the winter of 1898 and 1899, from 60 to
70 per cent of the peach trees of
Georgia. Alabama and, indeed. of the
entire Gulf region, with the exception
OF Texas, were killed by the frost. In
Florida a considerable proportion of
the orange trees which had not suffered
on previous winters, were lost, thereby
throwing a large number of fruit grow
ers out of their regular lines of plant
ing. AS result, thousands of acres
formerly devoted to peach and orange
growing were planted to cantaloupes
and watermelons. In most sections of
the south the season was favorable for
melon growth, and the result was a
great overstocking of the market And
yet, the experienced grower. with the
wisdom which comes of many paintings
has not been so seriously injured by
OVer-production as many of the newer
melon growers. He understood the
science of securing I'm early crop and
OF rushing it through el-established
channels. into the markets of the north
AS a result. the first carloads of cam
taloupes to reach New York brought
from IS to $3.50 crate. That means
81 100 and 81 500 for a single carload of
from 1000 to $4,000 melons 1t is not at
all unusual to raise in parts of Georgia
and Alabama from two to three car
loads to the acre. This would mean a
money yield of from $4,000 to $4,000 to
the acre, provided the melons could all
be harvested early in the season. When
this is compared to the yield to the
acre of wheat or almost any other
known crop the profits would appear
enormous. Certain it is that a number
of the most advanced growers have
been astonishingly successful with their
ventures in the south. Watermelons
have been only step behind the cam
taloupesin the size and marketing sue
cess of the crop. About !, 600 melons are
considered a carload. During the last
two or three years these melons have
averaged full thirty pounds weight
and some of them have gone beyond
sixty pounds. while a few prize melons
100 pounds and over have
crept into the shipments. The earliest
bring all manner of fancy
prices. By the LIST OF August the price
has usually dropped from 5000 to $3.50
per carload. That would mean a cost
of from 2 to 3.5 cents for a thirty-pound
as cheap a dessert, even
after the middleman's charges have
been added, as the average American
family could desire. AS the season adj
vances, the price decreases still further
until it frequently happens that the
shipper is willing to give his product
to anyone who will be kind enough to
pay the freight The earlier melons
nearly all come by express and spend
from two to three days on the road.
From Colorado the earliest product re-
quires nearly three days. or from four
to five days by freight. New York can
consume from twenty to
forty carloads every day.
Growers Work Like Trust
One curious development of the melon
crop, chiefly during the present season,
has been the growing sale of canta-
loupeS in the market by. name. A few
years ago the musknelon was a musk
melon. The only difference of designa-
ton were the elementary designations:
good" and bad" 1 asked w. A. Tay-
Tor, assistant pomoiogist of the United
States department of agriculture. how
the musl<melon happened to become the
I'm the north he said, the musk
melon is still the muskmelon; cantal-
oupe is a southern name, and from
the fact that the cantaloupe supply
comes largely from below the Mason
Dixon line, the name has gradually
invaded northern markets until at
present the ordinary city man would
not think for q moment of asking for
4 muskmelon when he goes to a res
taurant."
As I said before, the average mar !
1eter has begun to distinguish varieties !
If the cantaloupe. He knows the /
famous Rocky Ford melon from the |
Usage and the Paul Rose, and he thinks !
ne can distinguish it from the old
fashioned Melted Gem. The Rocky !.
Ford melon is perhaps the most famous |
If any in the market. 1t is grown in |
0tero county, Colorado, near Rocky /
Ford of the Arkansas river, where the !
is hot, the soil is light and !
he land can be supplied by means of T,
irrigation with an unlimited quantity |
If water at just the time when the mel /
IN plants are most in need of it. Otero |
county is indeed the hot-bed of Colora- /
10. The Rocky Ford melon is of me-
lium size and roughly Melted with I
green lines. 1t was first shipped in i
Quantities from Colorado to Chicago I
about three years ago. Here it's fame |
grew with mushroom rapidity. 1t was |
sweet and of excellent flavor and Chi
ago, having passed favorably upon
t. the shipments reached farther to the /
eastward until the Rocky Ford melon
S now the most popular canaloupe
n the markets of Philadelphia, New /
York and Boston. This success has
argely been due to the action of the
growers Themselves. They have worked
ogether like a trust Their shipments !