The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-02


 crates of Rocky Ford cantaloupss had up so August $ last actually been shipped, still .o-eaIled genuine Rocky Ford cantaloupes h.va been upon the market since the middle os last May when the first muskmelons are sh,pned from F1orida, followed consecutive iv by "fooky Fords'' from Georgia, Texas, North and South Carolina and California, where the limitations are grown. All of these melons were no doubt grown from Rocky Ford seed. which commands, price of ii to @ . pound for fancy But not unttl the simon pure Rocky Ford canta. ioupes actually appear does the epicure en- fov that indescribabiy rich and melting fla ,,or alone characteristic of the melon which has made Rocky Ford famous
 The yJnited States Department of Agr!- culture does not recognize any such yeRe- table product as . cantaloupe; they are known as Inuskmeions to Uncle sam, and that is really what the Rocky Ford canta- loupe is--an improvement upon the original .efsurpee's Melted Gem" muskmelon. There is no questioning the fact that the soil of the Arkansas Valley is peculiarly adapted to the implanting of the saeosarine matter especially Into the melea, sugar beet and sweet potato, and nowhere else can the cantaloupe or Fauskmelon be produced to the perfection that 1t is here.
 The cantaioupe aoreage for 1904 was first estimated at i2.oo0 acres. but this estimate has been reduced one-half, which is prob- ably fair estimate and a 1,5oo-acre in- crease over last year.
 Tn 1903 the output amounted to 800 car- loads, each consisting of $50 standard cratsS of forty-five melons each, which, with the small local shipments added, would made total of close to 800 900 crates. This record will no doubt be con- sidersbiy increased this year. as present prospects indicate a larger yield.
 The Federated Cantaloupe Association, composed of eleven individual or local asso- citations. averaged for the last season the sum of si.2t crate net to the growers, the early shipments netting them s5 to Ss a crate. This is considered very good profit when 1t is noted that from 100 to 200 crates are usually produced from one acre. Several owners of ten-acre tracts last year averaged s20o an acre, and in 1902 a newcomer from way back East pro- duced the prize acre of that season, re- ceiving s312.75 for the product of a single acre.
 Already the representatives of twelve oI more Eastern commission firms are getting their shipping sheds in order and distributing their crates among the growers one rirn has already received material for 135,00t crates, which. although 'knocked down, required twenty-seven cars to transport These crates were manufactured by a lum Der firm fin Albuquerque, N Mex. from timber grown in the mountains east o Santa Fe. The crates are supplied tn, growers at cost by their respective associa tions, and many boys and young men ar, now employed in finishing them at 1 cen each, an expert being able to put together 200 to 26o crates a day.
 Each of the associations owns a register ed label. one of which Is pasted or branded on one end of every crate before the ma teriai is handed to the grower. If consum CTS would take pains to look for these la bels. substitution would not be so easy.
 The melon patches are gone over care fully two and three times a day during the shipping season by expert pickers, wh, know at a glance when a melon has reach ed just the right stage to pfucK which fl at the time when the melon will slip iron the stem with a slight pressure.
 While nature has provided abundantlI toward the successful growing of thes' toothsome melons. still the crack grower arc very careful in the selection of the seed the preparation of the soil. followed by tn, man with the hoe'' during the entire grow ing season: 'hoe them early and hoo then late" being maxim.
 In the melon line Rocky Ford is also ia nous for her watermelons, having se aside for the past fifteen years the frs Thursday after the first Monday in Septem Der as "Watermelon Day." when melons are free to all who come. Watermelon Da! came on September this year Thes, watermeions are commercially known a the improved "Kleckley Sweet" the averag, weight of which is twenty pounds On, hundred carloads of watermeIons wer, shipped from here last year. the grower re ceiving to 10 cents a melon.