Imperial Valley press., 1920-05-11
HEAVY WIND WHIPS
BABY CANTALOUPES
Continued from Page One)

it was almost certain that few cars
would get away by May 10 or even
earlier. Today it is just as certain
that while there may be few express
cars made up from several shippers
by them there will be no regular move
| ment before May 25. This will be
the crop from the crown setting.
After that there will be lull of
several days when very few shipments
will be ready. Following this lull
there will be a heavy rush and every
one will be in the deal in full swing.
! This should take place about June 10.
1t is this heavy rush which distrib-
utors mostly fear. In the first place
there is small chance for the rail-
roads to get sufficient REFERS here
to take care of any heavy movement.
And if they should be able to muster
ANYTHING like fair number of cars
the reserve supply will be so rapidly
exhausted that just at the time
hundreds of cars are required there
will be a shortage the like of which
has never been experienced here.
NO EMPTIES TO SPEAK OF
This is the situation today in plain
American. The strike came Just as
the railroads were commencing to
wake up to the critical conditions.
And with the strike everything became
disorganized The entire crop lost
between April 9 and April % repre-
sent simply a stagnated condition in
the Mississippi river gateways, with
no empties going West and at the
same time no more empties coming
into these terminals on their way to
the Coast. In figures the Ia days
simply meant at the lowest basis
something like 2,100 cars cut off from
what was already a critical condition.
Nothing less than passenger train
schedules and at least 500 cars a day
coming to the Coast will now save
the day-or at least part of the
crop.
! BIG INVESTMENT IN DANGER
! The fact that Eastern cantaloupe
connections along with the "a dlstrib-
utors have all the way from 81 ,5OO,-
3 600 to 50 100000 invested in the I'M
perial Valley cantaloupe crop is hard
for the average man to grasp-unless
he has been on the ground and has
travelled over the valley and has seen
! the 10000 acres or more growing
vines. Nor can one appreciate the
natural anxiety of everyone in the
deal when at the eleventh hour stiff
wind from the Coast, and proceeds
to whip the vines about covering the
/ little melons where there is loose
earth. and in many places almost
/ twisting the vines into shreds. II
one field it will be the crown setting
which has been shot to pieces; in an
other the blooms of the second setting;
| in another the little melons just the
size of a bean-for this reason it is
impossible to make any fairly accur-
ate estimate of the damage. Nor, as
said before, will all of the damage
show up for even another week. Many
vines look burnt ard brown; literally
thousands of the tiny first setting
melons have a dried appearance, and
when one but touches the fruit 1t
falls off. The heavy foliage in many
fields lying close to the ground Pre-
tected the crown set melons which are
now about the size of large base
! ball and are heavily netted. The
heavy vines also protected the blooms
( TO a limited degree. Next week 1t may
be these same vines will show serious
damage where today they appear to
have escaped.
WHERE THE MELONS ARE
i, AS usual, the big acreage this
season is in the Brawley district
where about 10000 acres had been
planted. Westmorland came next with
nearly 4,OO0 acres. Thus the two dis
tricts which bore the brunt of the
gale, show practically half of the
valleys total. In Heber district where
there are about 1000 acres, the
damage was not appreciable, since
! the soil seems to be heavier. All 81
the northern district of the valley
shows spotted. Because of the heavy