Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1914-07-26

station where they were handled by the
A. c. Boyce company of Kansas City.
There was a record in this crop also
by a Japanese grower named Nishima.
who picked twelve thousand crates of
melons, forty five melons to the crate,
from something less than thirty seven
acres of land. These melons created
especially good impressions with the
representatives of the company hand
ling them as they ran better than six
ty-five per cent standard, or in other
words they We're so uniform in size as
to be easier handled than the odd sizes
would be.
Still another firm handled melons
from the Glendale field. This firm is
Crutchfield and Voolfolk of Pittsburg,
who have made q reputation for
themselves in the cantaloupe markets
of the east with their Salt River valley
melons. They shipped many carloads
to Pennsylvania breakfast tables.
Picking and Packing
The methods of picking and packing
the melons are very interesting to lay
the fruit are generally made at the
melon sheds by expert crate makers,
and these are taken into the fields
where the fruit is selected and placed
into them the tops nailed down and
then the wagons take them to the cars.
The companies maintain farce of
melon experts in the fields who see
r. i
size. The crates are distributed in the
fields along the rows of melons and
filled during the day time and then
toward the evening the wagons loaded
with them Wend their way toward the
siding where the cars are located. AS
high as twenty carloads of fruit a day
were shipped from Glendale during the
rush season. The crop was picked this
year in about three weeks.
sometimes the inspectors are re-
tanned at the melon sheds on the sid =
ings to do the inspecting, but they
more often operate in the fields At
the sheds they cannot get a good look
into the forty five melon crates for the
method of inspecting is merely to turn
the crate around and get a look at ev-
cry melon on the outside. The growers
generally bring a sack full of extra
ones in order to replace any that may
be condemned.
Some of the special varieties of mel
ons are wrapped in paper and then
packed. The Garrard people wrap all
of their melons as they deal exclusively
, in pink meats in the Glendale district
The other firms wrap some of their
better selections. All companies car
ry emblaZoned on the crates a highly
| colored photograph of the fruit and the
Most of them have a picture of the
Roosevelt dam on the boxes.
The price this year has held up Won
! derfully well. Some of the farmers
will clear more than s1OO per crate
for their output, while others will fall
below this, and some of the smaller
crates naturally will not net as much
| The Fred Harvey system makes q
/ specially of serving the best and ripest
of Salt River valley melons on the din
ing cars of the Santa Fe system ant
at the big hotels along the line thai
runs all the way. This demand or
! the part of the Fred Harvey system
has built up a trade in what is known
is 'ripes', those melons which can bt
| shipped by express to comparatively
nearby points, and which are ripper thar
the regular shipments meant for the
east Paxton and Kendrick have bull
up a splendid business in this line Of
! fruit They have been making ship
ments regularly of the ripened melon.
and so far have met with the Creates
success this season.
! The principal consignment points FOL
the melons from the Glendale distric
| this year are Kansas City, Chicago
! New York and Pittsburg. Kansas City
I Is reached in four days, Chicago in five
Pittsburg in six and New York in sey.
en-. The cars in which the fruit i.
SHIPPED are iced at Glendale before
starting and along the route wherever
needed. The melons therefore, arriv.
at their destinations in exactly tn,
same shape they leave Glendale. Spe
cial attention is paid this work along
/ the Santa .Fe system and a record is
kept of the time consumed by each cal
in reaching it's destination.
The observation of the successful
GROWER of cantaloupes in the Glendal,
section is that good land must be useC
for this crop in order to produce tn,
! best melons, and that the land mus
| be looked after and replenished or /
will soon give out. There is lots O
hard work about raising melons. bu
the land responds readily the crol
| grows well when attended to, the Sal
| River valley melon beats its famou.
Rocky Ford kin, and if money can b,
made in Colorado growing canta1oupe.