Imperial Valley press., 1909-07-31
ESTIMATED PROFITS
 ON CANTALOUPE CROP Commission Mems Figures Show Fair Average Re-
 turns This Year.
Results of Seasons Shipments lndi- cate That Market Can Absorb About Fifteen Hundred Carloads and Pay Experienced Growers About Hun dred Dollars an Acre in Favorable Years.

The last car of canla1oupes has been shipped from Imperial Valley and so far as shipments are concerned the season is ended; but it will require at least one week and possibly two more to compile returns which shall show just how much the melons growers receive per crate. Figures showing how much melons brought in certain markets and on certain dates are available, but until all the returns are in it will be impossible to make an accurate statement. Most of the com mission men decline to give out fig ures on their seasons returns until they are all in.
 But from such figures as are avail able, an approximate estimate of the results of the cantaloupe season can be made and few differences can be drawn concerning the general canta loupe situation and what the grower can reasonably expect from year to year.
 During the season, l260 carloads, containing 428,40 crates of canta- loupes, were shipped. These were grown on $500 acres, showing 120 crates on an average were shipped to the acre In view of the facts that there were many inexperienced mel on growers in the business this year, that some of the patches were on un- suitable soil and that more melons were grown than were shipped, the yield appears to have been remarka- bly good
 Estimates made by commission men indicate that the net returns to the growers on all classes of melons on an average throughout the season will be less than $1.00 per crate possibly as low as 80 cents. From this must be deducted the cost of picking and packing, so that, assuming the esti- mate to be nearly correct, the entire crop will average to the farmer lit tie better than 50 cents. This means that the $500 acres have yielded, net, nearly a quarter of million dollars and that cantaloupes have paid in the neighborhood of $6O.el per acre this year. Of course, many growers, who failed to get any early melons or who because of inexperience or unsuitable soil raised only scanty crop, will get very much less than that amount. while large number of growers will receive $10000 per acre and in some cases very much more.
 According to the opinion of some of the veteran commission men, condi- tions this year have been slightly less favorable than normal but will furnish a fair criterion of what can be ex- pected in the long run of cantaloupe growing. The commission men say that the distribution has been remarkably good and that Imperial Valley melons have been offered for sale every where in the United States where demand for them might be expected. The market as whole has been slightly unsettled, not only with re- gard to melons but other products, and the prices obtained have consequent ly been trifle lower than could be expected normally.
 Furthermore an improvement in the method of raising melons, can safely be depended upon. Last year 5000 acres shipped 1850 carloads; this year $500 ceres shipped 126O carloads, While 1t is true that, because of poor mar