Imperial Valley press., 1908-07-25
WHY MELON MARKET
 WAS NOT PROFITABLE
CROP RETARDED BY COLD SPRING HAD SHORT SHIPPING SEASON.
Distributors not Organized to Handle Ten Thousand Acres of CantaIoupes, but the Slump was not so Complete as Reported by Outside Papers.
Pacific Fruit World.l

On account of the unusual condition of the cantaloupe market, which has been bad enough, a great many news paper articles are appearing with very startling reports as to the condition of the melon industry in the Imperial Valley. This industry is one of the new ones in Southern California, and has grown suddenly to an enormous volume, and has had to meet climatic and marketing conditions for which it was wholly unorganized and unprepar- ed. Some of the newspaper articles state that the total charges for freight commission and refrigeration to date, have been about $245,0OO, and that the total receipts for the crop have been only $246000.
 ! These are not the facts as it may be clearly shown that one association marketing through the firm of Crutch- field Woolfolk Co.,, returned up to June 20th, in distribution to the grow CTS, about $40,000, and this represent ed only one-third of the crop, and it is a fair estimate that the other concerns have done as well, bringing a total to all of the growers of $120,000. This is by no means satisfactory or profit able, but it is not profitable for the in- terests of California to make sensa- tion by publishing statements not based on actual conditions.
 Some reasons for the unusual con- dition in the cantaloupe market are accounted for in the backward spring. The industry has been highly profit able for the last two or three years, and hundreds of growers plunged into the business this year, which, in itself, was sufficient to help break the mark ct. On top of this there is the very cold, backward spring, unusual in the desert country, so that the crop did not ripen in the normal shape, and the marketing period, instead of running over forty days or six weeks, really be- gan and ended within a period of ten or twelve days. When the hot weath- CT came it arrived all at once, and the melons ripened on the vines. There IS a record of one grower who picked 210 crates off of one acre in ten days This was a very unusual crop, and should have been scattered in its ripening period over six weeks.
 In the face of this rapid maturing of the melons, and the rush of getting them to market, was the conflict of the Georgia crop This crop is an un- known quantity, as the farmers in the backwoods of Georgia will often put in a large crop of this character of truck, which no one knows anything about until the last moment when 1t is ready for shipment, and there is no way to get crop statistics until 1t IS too late to formulate market plans to . meet it.
 However California melons have a particular value as trade article, and will doubtless be given the greatest attention by the trade, which will en- courage other sections to take up other lines.
 It is believed by all those who have carefully followed the marketing prop osition of the desert melons, that if the unusual climatic conditions had not occurred, the season would have been more than half fair.
 From our investigations, we find there are over 10000 acres planted to melons in the desert country this year, and the crop was a 100 per cent crop.
 The actual conditions. are bad enough, and doubtless will not pay for the planting and care of the crops. but as a matter of fact are very much better than some of the sensational reports that have gone out.