Rocky Ford enterprise., 1908-09-04

(Thc following article prepared fof
the journal of the American Dry
Goods Trade (Chicago) by Geo. II.
Taylor, is reproduced in The Enter
prise as an interesting prelude to the
write-up of our big Fair Weeks do
ings.)
"Mclon Day" at Rocky Ford, Colo,
Is an occasion that strikingly illus
tratcs the homogenity Of human ma
ture.
The land of Egypt is by nature a
rainless desert, which the river Nile
converts into a fruitful garden every
year. That river, taking its rise in
the two great Nyanza lakes, flows
through the rocky gorges OF the up
per piateaus and spreads itself out
across a dry and dusty plain, reach
ing almost to the shore of the Med
iterranean sea. By the rise Of its
Hood waters the whole valley OF the
lille is annually overfowcd, and so
Aratcrcd and fcrtilizcd.
The Arkansas River takes its rise
IN two lakes located near the summit
Of the Rocky Mountains. Bursting
through the grand giant ehasm
known as the Royal Gorge" it
spreads ltscI thIoush abhS
mails until it foods and waters the
dry and dusty valley that stretches
eastward three hundred miles to the
borders of Kansas, making all the re-
Rion to bloom and blossom as the
rose.
Midway in this area of once dry
and dusty but now irrigated land.
stands the little city of Rocky Ford,
clean, trec-cmbowered and substan-
TALLY built; and now almost world
famous for its production of the
sweet and luscious little golden-green
cantaIsupc and the large, luscious, OBJ
long watermelon. These two types
of melon stand pre-cininent among
their kind. These it is that have
made Melon Day."
Even a. the Egyptians welcomed
the seeming catastrophe of the inun..
the Arkansas Valley rejoice in the
coming of the flood waters down their
river. and store them up in the great
reservoirs or artificial lakes for irri-
eating purposes.
When the natural inundation of the
Nile valley was unusually great, and
only the mounds on which the an
cient villages of the inhabitants were
built, remained above water. so that
they had to travel from one to anoth-
er in boats, then the people thanked
their Gods and kept the festival of
The harvest-home. The tax-gathcrers
measured the depth of the waters
Nth their official sticks and announced
what the harvest would be, and made
their annual tax-levy. 1t looked a
fore they were hatchcd, but so GER
tain was the yield to correspond to
the volume of the water supply that
there were never any misgivings
about celebrating. The white-robed
priests marched in solemn procession
TO the water side, carrying the image
of the watcr-god, and chanting hymns
they cast into the water 1.-THE. a
gold coin. Then gay barges with
painted sails conveyed the merry ag-
rieulturists from village to village to
attend the Fairs. Then they had
boat races and bull fights and wrest-
gers and the nutshell gamesters
piled the crowd for suckers. Then
the blind harpers and the negro min.
strels from upper Africa amused the
holiday crowd and passed the tin cup
for the oboli. The old people sat
over the chcss-board and the diccbox,
and the boys played at pitch-and toss,
the girls at game similar to base
ball, with forfeits for the one who
missed a catch. The house-father
bought dolls for the children and
cheap jewelry and trinkets for the
wife. The meat stall aboundcd in
beef and venison. dressed geese and
chickens (thc latter artifcially incu-
bated in boxes of hot manure). Date
sweet-meats and doura cakes adorned
the candy stalls. side by side with
1eeks and onions and garlic. Roasted
joints Of sugar cane were sucked by
the babies. and barley beer and palm
wine drunk by the mcn-and the real
estate agent and the restaurant keep
er "waxed fat and kicked" This was
about the year 1000 B. c.