Rocky Ford enterprise., 1909-08-20
CANTAL0UPE AND SUGAR
BEET RAISING
By L. z. Fenlason

The cantaloupe business and sugar
beet raising are the special industries
developed in the Rocky Ford country.
One is the complement of the other
in rotation and in time they need at
eral weeks the earliers and when they
are being thinned the cantaloupes
need more attention, the beets need
only to be cultivated and irrigated.
During the cantaloupe harvest, which
closes before the beet harvest begins,
the beetsi require no attention.
Cantaloupes arep lanted in rows
both ways to facilitate cultivation.
When ready to plant, irrigating fur
rows are opened down-the slope from
the head ditch with a single shovel
plow, and the water turned in and al
lowed to run several hours. AS soon
as the soil is in working condition
the seed is planted in back of the fur
rows below the water mark, and COW
cred so the water will not overflow
the hill. The ground is kept moist
| by irrigation and when the plants are
we'll up they are cultivated both ways
and all burrows filled. When ready
to irrigate a~ain, furrows are opened
little further from the plants. The
hills are hoed. The weeds and all the
plants but three or four are cut out
All other cultivation is done with
horse
Picking begins about August Ist,
and the ground Is picked over once or
twice a day, until about October Ist.
The perfect melons are packed in
crates I2xI2x24 inches, holding forty
FIVE each, hauled to the station, in
spected by experts imperfect melons
replaced by perfect ones, and in the
hottest weathea place in cold storage
for twelve hours, then sent to eastern
cities in express or refrigerating cars.
A good crop is from $50 to 800
crates per acre, which at cents net
per melon would bring the grower
from $I3S to S27o per acre. The wri-
ter received little over S2oo per acre
for his crop, making net profit above
all expenses, including interest on in
vestment. of over SIoo per acre.
To raise ten acres OF beets, TOUR
| acres should be planted early in April,
ten days later three acres. This will
give nearly n month for thinning.
The planting is done with two-horsc
drill. sowing four rows eighteen or
twenty inches apart and using twenty
pounds of seed per acre. Should the
ground get dry before the bects arc
up, small burrows are opened between
two alternate rows with a one-horsc
wheel cultivator having two little ir-
rigating plows placed thirty or forty
inches apart. The water is turned in.
to these burrows and let run until the
seed is moist, being careful not to let
the water overflow tho rows.
Thinning begins soon after the
fourth leaf arocars. The spacing. Is
done with q 6ve-inch hoe by cutting
across the row. then leaving clus-
ter OF bcets one or two inches long
and cutting across again, etc. All the
bccts except the best one Is then pull
ed out of the cluster by hand. thus
leaving a beet every six or eight inch
cs in the row.
The cultivation continues until the
tops shade the ground. and the irri..
CATION until about the middle OF
August.
In harvesting the bccts are loosen
ed in the ground by a special beet
niow. then pulled and thrown into
small piles, and the tops cut off with
knives made for the purpose. They
are then delivered at the factory or
the nearest railroad station. On our
hard dry roads two horses can haul
from two to three tons to load.
Our soil and climate make very
sweet cantaloupes, and produce bects
with n high per cent. OF sugar. Last
season the sugar content of the bects
varied from thirteen per cent. to twen-
ty-fivc per cent. the average being
| eighteen per cent. The yield per
acre varied from twelve to thirty tons.
and brought the grower from SEQ to
SIaS per acre. The expense OF grow
ing and delivering varies from $50 to
$40 Der acre. Sugar bects arc as sta
pie here as corn in Illinois. They are
hardy plant to raise. and the market
is assured.
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