Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-08-18
SORE TRIALS OF
THE MELON BUYER
TAKES MUCH EXPERIENCE TO
PICK GOOD sPEcI-
MEMS.
SOME DEALERS MAKE A POINT
OF GUARANTEEING
FLAvoRs.

In the vicinity of Washington mar
ket, New York, serious-looking house
keepers or their husbands, on the
way to ferry and elevated stations,
stop in front of the fruit stands and
Wrangle over melons. No other kind
of produce appears to excite the buy
ers as does the humble little melon.
They will take string beans, or let
tuce, or green peas without murmur
of protest, and probably get the worst
end of the deal, but, when it comes to
melons, each marketer seems to think
that either he is doomed to be cheated
or Is so expert judge that nobody
can deceive him.
When the individual picks UP
melon under sign six for Is cents
and pinches it, and lifts it and smells
it, the careful observation does not
signify that lie is a connoisseur. or
that he owns melon patch. If his wife
could buy melons for the same money
at the market in their town, he prob
ably would not be buying them at all;
but as 1t is. he has to buy or go with
out; so he puts on the best face, goes
where he thinks he can get the cheap
lest, and boasts of it to his friends.
"Why, you fellows are easy to buy
your green stuff of that Shylock in
the village, he tells his neighbors. az
do the buying for the house in New
York and save money every day I'm
getting to be regular wizard at mar
keting."
Every day the trains pour their
loads of melons into the city markets,
and each fresh load increases the size
of the pile of seconds" and thirds
that must be sold at discount or
charged to total loss. There is al
ways a market for the fruit. 1t is
snapped up by the spectators and put
out for sale on street corners, curbs
sweet and wholesome, little of it is
overripe, but most of it is colorless,
hard, and tasteless, with no more the
real flavor of cantaloupe than has an
lunripe cucumber. If the bargain hunt
er gets one or two good melons out of
half dozen, he is fortunate. The profit
of the speculator is sometimes so and
100 per cent. But fortunately there
are reputable dealers who do not
handle the tasteless varieties.
In a well-organized club or hotel no
steward dares put unripe or blighted
melons on the table. The member or
guest has the privilege to decline any
thing set before him, if it is not to his
taste, and with melons the taste is
growing so particular that it is not I'M
common for waiter to bring three or
four, or half a dozen before the patron
is satisfied. The stewards realize
and buy accordingly, and such is the
desire to produce houses to get the
patronage of these places that they
generally take back all melons proving
unsa isfactory, practically guarantee
ing the fruit they sell.
Forty Car Loads Day.
From the first of June to late aut-
umn, melons are taken into New York
at the rate of forty carloads day.
This is a conservative estimate. 1t
means that 10000 cases are received
daily, on the average, through the
melon season The cases average
forty-five melons apiece. So 100000
melons a day to the metropolitan dis
-trict.
The cantaloupe has been going from
California and the far western states
since June, but the North Carolina
melons will hold the market until the
beginning of the harvest of the Mary
land. Delaware and New Jersey fruit
next week All through the year, the
commission merchants have members
of their firms in the melon country. en-
couraging growers and forming asso-
Citations whose products they are to
handle. The merchants interest the
railroads in the associations, and the