The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-19
MELON RAISING OUT WEST
THE INDUSTRY NO LONGER
 THE SOUTH'S
MonopoIy-Great EatermeIons Grown Besides ths Famed Rocky Ford canteIoupes-Ths Industry Carried on With system-MOney in Growing Melon Seed Alan

Canteloupes-The Industry Carried on With system-MOney in Growing Melon Seed Also.
 The day when the South monopolized the production of melons is past. With each year the plains become a stronger rival of the South and the vines fed by the irrigation waters gives better re- turn than those that depend on the rainfall of Southern skies.
 Melon raising in some parts of the West is a science. Not even the wheat has better care or more regular atten- tion and study. It is the one crop in which the East cannot be in any con- siderable degree a rival of the West and the producers are autocrats in their dealings.
 The center of the melon-raising dis trict is Rocky Ford, in the southeastern part of Colorado. Here the sun shines through the long summer days with scarcely a cloud to break it's glare.
 The pure air of the plains. the south winds that come up from the Gulf and the influence of the mountains unite to give an atmosphere that is invigorat- ing and delightful. It brings the lus- cious melons to perfection and rich ness that makes them joy to the palate. Not even the Georgia melon rivals this product of the prairie.
 The melon harvest begins in August and continues until freezing weather. The name Rocky Ford suggests the small canteloupes with the pungent taste and delightful freshness. Here they grow as nowhere else. The seed is taken to other districts and there is produced a fair quality of canteloupe; but 1t is not the Rocky Ford
 The West does not get many of these melons. The growers have strong combination and every carload goes out through a single agent. Whether rais- ed at Rocky Ford or in one of the sur- rounding towns, for the business spreads over a wide territory, all have the same label and are of the same quality.
 They leave the ranches packed with as much care as oranges. The cars are iced 800 miles eastward and yet again before the contents are placed on the market in the Eastern cities.
 This year the first car east went to Pittsburg. The leading hotels, the din- ing cars and the wealthy people of the cities are served first. The average small town on the plains, even though within three or four hundred miles of the farms receives only a few crates in < the whole season, and those usually not of the best, for they are sent out to To- cal trade only after the regular whole sale customers are supplied.
 Along with the canteloupes are pro- duced large quantity of watermelons in the upper Arkansas valley. These grow to an immense size and are rich in flavor
 Some farmers do nothing else but raise watermelons and they make a good income. They get high prices and are sure of a market. Late in the sea- son there is set apart a Watermelon Day when each grower contributes of his store and everybody is invited to eat his fill free. Trainloads of people come from Denver and other cities within reach and great heaps of melons disappear as by magic.
 Across the Kansas line, near Garden City and further down the Arkansas Valley, is another form of the melon industry-that of raising melons for the seed. The large seed houses of the country depend on the West for their supply and contracts are made in ad- vance for the amount needed.
 The valley here is as fertile as in the Rocky Ford district. But the river is not so kind. The irrigation ditches nearer the mountains have taken SC 4loaS !, 1o1, +ny months of the year it's visible presence is a tiny ribbon winding aimlessly through a quarter-mile- wide waste Of yellow sand.
 But aided by such water as comes and with good soil as foundation the melons are in successful years SC thick as almost to cover the ground and fifty acre fields so adorned art novel and interesting sights. The cost of bringing a crop to maturity is iron $8 to SIP per acre.
 @ The work begins May 15 and there are needed two irrigations to make z success This season has been the near est failure of any in a decade owing to the drought and lack of water in thu river but yet acres of melons will b. threshed
 Threshing has different significance from that given it on the wheat land in the eastern counties of the State. is a process for separating the seed from the pulp of the melons. A crud sort of machine. run by horse power Is sufficient for the process.
 Into huge hopper the melons ar thrown with a pitchfork, as woult wheat bundles be fed to separator A few days previously the field ha been gone over and each melon re ceived a thrust from a fork. thus pre- maturely ripening it and making it sof and easily broken. When the feede throws the melon into the hopper upol the crushers, it is sent with much fore and bursts just above an inclined siev below.
 Further torn to bits by swiftly re yolving cylinder armed with shar bikes and driven by horse power mass of rinds and pulp and seeds i formed. Along the inclined screen it i worked and the seed and pulp ar pushed through wires, leaving only tn rinds. These are shoveled away unt the pile becomes too large, when tn machine is moved-this is easier tha tormove the rinds
 The seeds and pulp that com through the screen and stored in grea