The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-24
wATERMELoNs FROM MISSOURI.

NeW Industry Raising the Mortgage
 from Many an Ozark Farmers Home.
 The raising of watermelons has be- come one of the recognized agricultural industries of southeast Missouri, and is proving every year just about the most profitable fruit crop in the state. The melons require but little attention, so that there is practically nothing to cut down the gross profit, which generally averages from about $75 to $50 per acre.
 The soil and climate for the greatpart of Missouri are well adapted to the rais- ing of the big melons, and in the fiat lands of the southeast and the sheltered valleys of the Ozarks exceptionally large crops are produced. Even the rocky soil on the slopes of the hills ap- pears to offer but little obstacle to their growth, and they seem to flourish everywhere. Yet it is only within the past few years that raising watermelons for the outside markets had been thought of at all by the Ozark farmers. Melons, of course, have been always grown for home consumption, but rare- ly shipped out of the counties in which they were grown until the railroads be- gan to interest themselves in the matter and by all the means in their power, to induce the raising of melons for ex- port, with the most satisfactory re- suits. St. Louis was nearly always compelled to depend upon the American bottoms in Illinois and the immediately adjacent counties in Missouri for it's greatest supply of melons. but now they pour in from New Madrid, Pemiscot, Duhklin, Scott and other counties of southeast Missouri in luxurious profus- ion and invariably of the highest quali- ty. Indeed the fame of the Missouri watermelon has spread beyond the borders of the state, even as has that of our apples and peaches, and now there exists a great and growing demand for them on the markets of Chicago, Mill waukee and other Northern. as well as Eastern cities. The rich, loamy soil of Dunklin county produces an unusually fine, sweet and juicy melon, of large size, and not even the renowned Georgia product can surpass it in flavor or quality. Nearly all of the cotton plant CTS now devote portion of their farms to a melon patch, and have invariably found that the demand always exceeds the supply. In fact, if the taste for the Missouri melon continues to spread it will not, be many seasons before the prices will equal the Florida product in winter and St. Louis may find herself paving as much for the luscious fruit as Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and other cities not So well favored by nature with a, prolific fruit belt in close proximity to their doors.
 What the total acreage devoted to melon raising and the total yield In the state is it would be hard indeed to esti- mate, for there are few reliable figures in existence, but conservative persons in close touch with the subject believe that melons last year covered not less than 3o,000 acres iii the state. nearly one-half of which was in southeast Missouri, and that the yield was in thu neigh borhood of 25.oo0.8o0 melons, hav- ing total value of about $2, 000, 900. Rather astonishing figures for an in- dustry that usually receives little con- sideration save for the purposes of home consumption. A great quantity of these melons is, of course, consumed on the farms, and nearly ore-half is disposed of in the smaller towns before the markets of the great cities are reached with the supply. Just how many mel ons St. Louis buys every year is the hardest kind of a proposition to un- tangle, but it is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 melons, or about one-tiftfl the total product of the state Nearly all the melons shipped to St. Louis came from southwestern corn- ties. Kansas City and St. Joseph being compelled to depend upon the contigu- ois territory for their supply, and the railroad records show that out of Dunk lin county alone last year there came S35 full ears to St. Louis, or, allowing 5000 melons to a car, nearly one-half of the total consumption of the big fruit in the city. A portion of this was shipped to the North, where the clamor for Missouri melons is becoming more pro- nounced each season. Some towns ex-# celIed particularly in the shipment of melons. Thus from Clarkton, in Dunk lin county, there came 235 cars, the ban- ner record of the state, while from Mall den, in the same county, and Morley, in Scott dbunty, 200 cars at each place were shipped. Benton, Scott county ranks next with 125 cars, and Holcomb Dun lin county, is a good fifth with no cars to it's credit. Fine melons are also grown in Pemiscot. Mississippi, New Madrid and Cape Girardeau counties, and good supply of excellent quality is also raised around Biggers, in Ram dolf county, which had a record of twenty cars, or about 60,oo0 melons last year.
 The success of the melon crop last year and the good prices which gener-' ally prevailed opened the eyes of many farmers as to the value of the crop, and there is every indication that the supply this year will be more than triple that of last season. In all the counties where melons were grown in any quan- tity last Summer, the acreage devoted to the cultivation of the fruit has been vastly increased, and in many instances farmers with only small tract of ground are raising watermelons to the exclusion of almost everything else. From Bollinger, Wayne, Butler. Stod-