The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-29
LAND MADE GLAD
BY GOLDEN MELONS
How Scotland County is
Getting Rich.
TALES OF "QUAKE"
Section About Laurinburg Filled With
Melon Patches Which Yield a Years
Living in Three Months..-An Edu-
Gated, Happy People Growing,
Also, Pretty Girls.
BY X. l.. GRAY.

BY X. l.. GRAY.
Laurinburg, n. c., July 2S.-This is
community of rich folks AS far as
ed to be used is concerned, there is
none. There is no pre-eminent capt.
talist, no great fortune to cast its shad-
ow on the people. 1t is the people
themselves, and not the occasional in
dividual who are rich. That is, every.
body seems comfortable, everybody is
happy, everybody is making money.
Likewise, everybody is at work, ana
they like their jobs. 1t is the smiling
est place youoever saw.
The products of Scotland county
are chiefly at this session of the year
melons and pretty girls The melons
get a vicarious sort of beauty aside
from their personal sweetness in
that their sale makes the girls possible
to the men. 1t is a hard combination
to beat; there is money in the melons
and joy in the girls.
Melon-raising is a new thing in Scot
land and the reason that it is sue
ceeding as it is depends quite as much
upon the intelligence of the men who
farm as upon the advantages of the
soil which is the finest in the world
for the purpose.
''Tos make cantaloupes." said one
of the most successful growers, lis like
fighting fire. You've got to keep at il
from the jump until you get your
check. But it's worth the trouble" "
Raising melons such as bring fancy
prices in the Northern markets
amounts to something more than let
ting the vines scramble around over
the sandy soil. Melons are bred as
carefully as blooded stock. They are
forced to develop certain characters
tics and are guarded against various
mistakes A melon must be sweet
clear through, it must have thin
rind. and it must get ripe in hur-
ry. To do this the farmer depends
upon liberal use of specially pre-
pared fertilizers. in quantity that
would scare a grower of cotton out OF
his boots And there must be just the
right sort of fertilizer. in just the
proper quantity, and it must be APP
piled all along at just the proper
times. Different lands, different va
rieties of melon, require different fer
tilizers The character of the season
also influences this important part OF
the melon raising. A mistake makes
a melon that is not sweet, or one that
is not properly grown or one that gets
ripe too soon or too late. And when
the field is ready, there comes the
psychological moment when the crop
must be gathered. That much abused
phrase has a very real meaning In
trucking. When the picking com
mences, there is haste that takes away
the breath. Time is literally golden
There is a rush of Grating, rush for
the cars, the melons five hours off the
vine are on ice the train leaves at the
rate of an express, the next morning
the Scotland melon is on the tables of
the welI-to-do in New York. Within
week the Scotland farmer has a check
of a size that would again scare cot
ton planter to receive. His product
has been sent for him freight prepaid,
the commissions have been deducted
from the selling price, every item of
expense is intelligently figured and the
check represents practically the net
of the work.
This met" will average very nearly
a dollar a crate for the season. Some
growers, who have been fortunate i'll
getting particularly early market or
in making bumper crop, receive con-
siderably more.
It is an ordinary thing for a ten
acre patch of melons to net its owner
fifteen hundred dollars a season. The
crop is planted. cultivated, grown ana
picked all within three months. Then
the ground is turned under and put
for the most part, into hay, the land
producing from twenty to forty dollars
an acre in that crop, while the farmer
with his melons behind him and the
capital of the crop in his pocket can
bide his time on cotton and corn and
sell or not in the fall, as he is pleased
or not with the price. No wonder the
Macs are smiling sort of folk.
Frank Mccormick, from five acres
has gathered S94 crates of melons
which will net him at least $1.00 a
crate. He nas yet 100 crates to hear
from.
Messrs L. d. and Will McKinnon
from five acres have received $4,000,
Mr.. L. d. McKinnon, in speaking of
the cost of production stated that q
careful calculation had shown him
that his melons on the cars cost not
more than five cents per crate.
State Senator Hector Mclean has
gathered 1915 crates from twelve
acres al a net return of from so to 80
cents per crate.
These are fair examples of what is
being done by careful farmers. When
it is remembered that the returns
come from an outlay of time of only
three months, their magnitude can be
appI eciated
othc.' successful groves are J. t.
Bostick, who has nine acres, some Of
which returned him net profits of $1.75
mar TT q C0uiYopton HNho &