Cantaloupe

a variety of muskmelon, known also as rockmelon. The melon is from Asia; the name is from Italy. The melon was brought from Armenia, it is believed, to the papal gardens at Cantaluppi, near Rome. As distinguished from the nutmeg varieties, a cantaloupe is any furrowed muskmelon having a hard, warty rind. The flesh may be white, green, or yellow.

A small, hard, rough cantaloupe, with green, fibrous flesh of rich, sweet flavor, has been developed by the growers of Rocky Ford, the county seat of Otero County, in southeastern Colorado. Gardeners call this variety the Netted Gem, but it is known the United States over as the Rocky Ford cantaloupe. The Colorado melon district is a belt of rich, irrigated land in the valley of the Arkansas. The business began in the eighties with small shipments to the Denver market. The peculiar adaptation of the soil to the raising of the melon and its acceptability in the market have encouraged growers, until the cantaloupe crop is the chief dependence of a large section of which Rocky Ford is the chief station.

Cantaloupe raising has had quite a history. It is easy enough to raise cantaloupes. With rich soil, sunny skies, and irrigation, one summer is like another; the grower is independent of season. The loss or profit lies in the manner of marketing. At first, shipments were made by individual growers by express. The rates ate up the profits. Too many melons were dumped on the market at a time. Owing to rumors of high prices, one city might have an over supply, while another had none. The growers learned to cooperate in 1896. A group of farmers arranged to combine their melons and ship by freight in car lots to Kansas City and St. Louis. The first cars sold to advantage. Later shipments were sold at a loss.

The next season an association of practically all the growers in Otero County was organized. One hundred and twenty cars were sent to the St. Louis market. This year established the fame of Rocky Ford and brought the grower profit. In 1898 disaster came. Large plantings were made. Eight hundred growers associated. Arrangements were made to ship under contract to a single St. Louis firm which had established agencies in New York, Pittsburg, and other Eastern cities. Five thousand acres of melons were ready for daily picking. Rocky Ford was a busy station. As high as twenty-eight cars were sent off daily. The markets were glutted. Melons spoiled in transit. A hundred cars were thrown into New York harbor. The Santa Fe railroad cancelled freight charges on spoiled car lots, but the commission house was able to pay the growers' association less than a third of the contract price.

It is difficult to get farmers to hold together even under favorable circumstances. The disaster wrecked the large association, and many growers turned their attention to sugar beets. The notion of cooperation survived, however. Many smaller associations were formed with a central steering committee. Standard Rocky Fords are now shipped in crates holding forty-five melons. The "ventilator" car of early shipments has been replaced by large refrigerator cars in which some 366 crates can be sent to any corner of the Union. Melons arrive in as firm and sound condition as when they started. The distribution is controlled (1909) almost entirely by four commission houses in Pittsburg and New York. The year named was a year of over production. Rocky Fords sold at retail at Mississippi valley points as low as seventy-five cents a crate.