Cantaloupe

“ For the June number the cantaloupe-raising industry of Lawrenceburg, in Lawrence County, Tenn., has been selected—Lawrence County, where one hundred dollars and more per acre were cleared last year in her newly discovered improvement [395] in the Rocky Ford cantaloupe, and lands are trebling in value. From issue to issue we will take different sections of the South, from Georgia to Texas. And as we go we propose to tell the history and the romance of it too. For what is a land without its romance? A woman without a love affair is more interesting. ”

“ A sort of melon grows on tall plants and is eaten with salt as one does cantaloupe, but it grows very much larger. It is without doubt the melon tree found everywhere in the tropics, probably of the papaya family. ”

“ I have not yet learned to be fond of this tropical fruit for, [37] like olives, the taste is acquired, and it oftentimes requires many and repeated efforts to cultivate a taste. There is a fruit that grows out of the side and trunk of great trees, which much resembles an immense hedge apple, that is peculiar to this district. It grows to an immense size, and the natives are very fond of it. Then there are melons called the mammão, that grow on trees, and which much resemble the cantaloupe in appearance, but differ in flavour. ”

“ The diversity of size among melons classed as Cantaloupes is very great, but all are characterised by a more or less rough and thick rind, which considerably reduces the eatable proportion of the fruit, a defect which seems to increase in the larger-growing kinds, as in the old Black Rock Melon, for instance, which often attains a weight of 14 lbs., about three-parts of it, however, being composed of a rugged wall of rind studded with carbuncles, and a mass of seeds within, embedded in the fraction of eatable pulp, small indeed in quantity and very poor in quality. ”

“ The cantaloupes are considered to be of higher quality that those grown in other areas of the State. Because they are highly perishable, cantaloupes must upon maturity be immediately harvested, processed, packed, and shipped in order to prevent spoliage. The processing and packing operations can be performed only in packing sheds. Because the company had no such facilities at Parker, it transported its 1966 Parker cantaloupe harvest in bulk loads to Blythe, California, 31 miles away, where it operated centralized and efficient packing shed facilities. ”

“ Cantaloupes, or small melons, should be placed on ice the night preceding their use. Cut or slice off the top of each melon; remove the seeds, and replace them with fine ice; replace the covers, and send to table looking as though uncut.
Should they taste insipid, trim off the rind, cut the remainder into neat pieces, pour over them a plain salad-dressing, and they will be found quite palatable. ”

“ Seed should be purchased only from most reliable sources. Rockyford growers are at present the principal means of supply.
Soil.—Experience has proven that a sandy loam is the soil best suited for cantaloupes, and that its condition of tilth and the available fertility are the prime essentials in bringing cantaloupes to quick maturity. The secret of getting soil in that ashy, mellow condition so desirable for cantaloupes is largely one of experience, for hardly two farms can be handled the same. ”

“ Banana Cantaloupe Soak gelatine in cold water, beat whites of eggs slightly, add powdered sugar, and gradually hot cream, cook over hot water until it thickens; add soaked gelatine and remaining sugar, strain into a pan set in ice-water, add bananas and lemon juice, stir until it begins to thicken, then fold in whip from cream. Line a melon mould with lady fingers trimmed to just fit sections of mould, turn in the mixture, spread evenly, and chill. ”

“ There are twenty varieties of bananas, seedy oranges may be had anywhere, the mango, pineapple, mamey, guayaba, mamoncillo, guanábana, chirimoya, sapote or níspero, the papaya, a tree-grown melon superior to our best cantaloupes and with a taste of honeysuckle, and the grape-fruit are among the many island delicacies, but only the pineapple and grape-fruit are cultivated with any attention. ”

“ They are gathered into piles on ground where water will not gather and covered with the trash of the vines on which they grow. They will keep for months in this way, as our autumn temperatures do not freeze them. Other growers collect them in open sheds shaded from sun and rain, and still others put them into barns or shallow cellars under buildings, etc. The melons are very durable and seem disposed to keep in any old way. The melons are shipped in large packing cases with slat sides, or in the smaller slat crates that are used for summer cantaloupes. ”

“ It would be interesting to know how many million dollars American farmers earn every year by raising melons. The Rocky Ford district in Colorado alone ships about 1,500 carloads of cantaloupes, and these are but a drop in the bucket. Nobody would dream of buying melons for food; their commercial value is entirely a matter of Flavor. And in proportion as the Flavor was improved has the raising of melons become more profitable. Time was when the old-fashioned "mushmelon" was tolerated; but compared with the choice varieties of cantaloupes now in the market it was but one remove from the pumpkin. ”

“ Melons should be thoroughly chilled. Cantaloupes should be cut in halves, have the seeds removed, and be served one half to a person. Watermelons should be cut in halves, then each half cut in pie-shaped pieces; serve one piece to a person.
Nuts are ordinarily served only at dinner. Hard-shelled [315] nuts should be cracked, served in the shell, or without the shell.
Almonds are cracked, and a portion of the shell discarded, or they may be blanched and salted, and served with the bonbons. ”

“ Raw celery is seen so much more frequently on the table in this country than in any other that it may be virtually considered an American specialty. Nowhere else is it so crisp and tender, or so eagerly craved. It is a nerve tonic, and we need nerve tonics.
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While melons are not indigenous to America, many of the choicest varieties of cantaloupes and watermelons are creations of our growers. Nowhere in the world will you find anything to surpass in sweetness and fragrance the Emerald Gem, the New Spicy, or the Rocky Ford, most luscious of all. ”

“ As time goes on they will doubtless find that the land will be found suitable for both cantaloupes and watermelons and fruits of all kinds, including figs and grapes. In the matter of grapes alone, I happen to know that in a similar section in Butler County, Ala., a light, sandy land, with good clay subsoil, the finest of Scuppernong grape [518] arbors flourished, some of them covering a half-acre of ground, from which the best of home-made wines are brewed. ”

“ I am enclosing an order for more plants to be shipped next spring.” Louis Balfanz, Wisconsin.
“Kellogg’s Superb Everbearers and Hearts of Gold Cantaloupes grew side by side in my garden last summer. Both did splendidly and were the very best to be had.” Mrs. L. J. Burckhardt, Kansas.
“We find Kellogg Everbearers fully up to the standard you claim for them. They are the highest quality plants we have ever had.” Peter V. Coddington, New York.
“We are well pleased with Kellogg’s Everbearing strawberries. Had an abundance of berries last year from mid-summer until Thanksgiving.” ”

“ The market-gardeners round Paris and other parts of France chiefly cultivate varieties of Cantaloup melon known as the Prescott hâtif à chassis and Prescott fond blanc—both excellent in flavour. The plants are grown in frames on hotbeds, and only one large fruit is allowed to mature on each plant. ”

“ Each, as it falls, leaves a ridge upon the trunk, which assists the climber in reaching the fruit. The blossoms of the cocoanut spring from the trunk and open amid the bases of the lower leaves; as the tree sends forth a succession of blossoms every few weeks, the fruit is found upon it in every stage of maturity at the same time, from the blossom and the cluster of pretty little green nuts not larger than plums, to the full-grown fruit as large as a man's head, hanging from a tough stalk and ready to be plucked. ”

“ The cattle browse through them lazily; stringing out across the flowering fields, they look in the distance no more than droves of mice; their red and black backs alone are visible above the herbage. In places, wild candytuft in blossom spreads a quilt of palest lavender in every direction on a wide circling horizon. Darling pea, the colour of violets and smelling like them, threads through the candytuft and lies in wedges, magenta and dark purple against the sky-line, a hundred miles farther on. The sky is a wash of pale, exquisite blue, which deepens as it rises to the zenith. ”

“ There is no natural order more wonderful in the variety and singular shapes of its fruit than that to which the melon, cucumber, and vegetable marrow belong. From the writhing Snake-cucumber, which hangs down four or five feet long from its stem, to the round enormous giant pumpkin or gourd, the grotesque variation, both in colour and shape and size, is marvellous. ”

“ The glossy green fronds of the bananas throw other verdure altogether into the shade, while in dignity and beauty the cocoanut palms excel all other trees. The tall, straight stem of the palm rises from the roots without leaf or branch until the plumed head is reached, which bends slightly under its wealth of pinnated leaves and fruit combined. If you happen to pass these gardens after nightfall, especially those in the immediate environs of the city, mark the phosphorescent clouds of dancing lights which fill the still atmosphere round about the vegetation. ”

“ This is not usual in the cotton-tree, although they are always, at their full growth, of a great height and the trunk large.
I here observed also a tree bearing a singular fruit, the name of which has escaped my recollection. It is larger than, and much resembles an orange, but has merely a very thin skin, with pores like the orange, inside of which is a shell as hard as that of the cocoa-nut. This shell is about the thickness of a half-crown, and the kernel (which completely fills the shell) is a little thicker in consistence than butter, and of an acrid taste. ”

“ Cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. It is a tropical tree and grows in both the Old and the New World.
Although the cacao tree grows wild, it is also cultivated in orchards much like fruit orchards which you have seen. The trees are seldom more than twenty feet high, but they are rather inclined to spread out. They require some shade, and so other trees are often planted between the rows to shade them. The trees begin to bear when five or six years old, and [122] continue to yield for forty years. ”

“ The melon requires artificial heat to grow it to perfection, the rock and cantaloup varieties succeeding with a bottom heat of 70° and an atmospheric temperature of 75°, rising with sun heat to 80°, and the Persian varieties requiring a bottom heat of 75°, gradually increasing to 80°, and an atmospheric temperature ranging from 75° to 80° when the fruit is swelling, as much sun heat as the plants can bear being allowed at all times. ”

“ When they take the color of the tree they rest on, it may be to elude their enemies, to whom their slow motions make them an easy prey. At the corner of the house stands a pomegranate tree, full of fruit, which is not yet entirely ripe; but we find enough to give a fair taste of its rich flavor. Then there are sweet oranges, and sour oranges, and limes, and coconuts, and pineapples, the latter not entirely ripe, but in the condition in which they are usually plucked for our market, an abundance of fuchsias, and Cape jasmines, and the highly prized night-blooming cereus. ”

“ The facts are quite different in America. The wild banana has been seen nowhere except in Barbados,1541 but here it is a tree of which the fruit does not ripen, and which is, consequently, in all probability the result of cultivated varieties of which the seed is not abundant. ”

“ The fruit of the cultivated varieties is generally smooth, or provided with a few stiff hairs, while that of the wild varieties has soft and shorter hairs; but intermediate forms exist, and it has been shown by experiment that by sowing the seeds of the cultivated fruit, plants with either smooth or hairy fruit are obtained.1363 There is, therefore, but one species, which has produced under cultivation one principal variety and several sub-varieties as to the size, colour, or taste of the fruit. ”

“ If the tints of the vegetation were admirable, no less so were its forms; for there were palms of many different kinds, including the coconut palm in thousands, close down to the water’s edge. The traveller tree, shaped like a fan made of organ pipes; the banana and plantain, loaded with great bunches of fruit, each bunch a fair load for a man; there were great clumps of feathery bamboo ”

“ Most of the palms also had fruit; some like the cocoanut, others like small berries. Then there was the palmetto, with its tender succulent bud on the summit of the stem, used as a vegetable with meat. Others had bunches of bright chestnut-brown fruit hanging from between the leaves which form the crown, each bunch about a foot in length, massive and compact, like a large cluster of Hamburg grapes. Then there was another palm, bearing a greenish fruit not unlike the olive in appearance, which hung in large pendent bunches just below the leaves. ”