624 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



in Florida too early, the shipments arriving at the Korth still perfectly 

 green and hard. Tomatoes require more careful assorting than any 

 other vegetable — all inferior, bruised, leaky, or worm-eaten ones shouU^ 

 be Lstrictly excluded. The trade demands of late years tliat tomatoes be 

 each wrapped in paper. It protects the remainder of the fruit from 

 leaky or decaying ones. The paper should be soft and strong. Pieces 

 about 7 inches square will answer for medium-sized fruit. The pajxT- 

 ing involves more careful packing, and, if properly done, tbere will bo 

 no shifting of the contents of the crates. For packing tomatoes bushel 

 crates are generally used, except at Mobile, where they are shipped iu 

 one-third bushel crates and peck baskets. 



For seed the earliest, well-matured, and best-formed fruit should be 

 selected. When thoroughly ripe they are cut in two and the seed and 

 inner pulp scraped into a pail or barrel and allowed to ferment for sev- 

 eral days with frequent stirring. The seed may then be wasljed from 

 the pulp, dried in sun and air, and preserved in bags. In some seasons 

 the large green worm of SjjMnx Carolina and Sphinx quinquemaculata 

 do considerable injury, when they must be hunted and killed, but the 

 most injurious insect is the Cotton-boll Worm or the Corn-seed Worm, 

 Heliotliis armigera. They rarely touch the leaves, but penetrate the 

 young fruit, one specimen often boring into and destroying several. 



The Watermelon {Oitrullus vulgaris). 



Melon culture has of recent years been so extensively pursued along 

 the lines of railways in Georgia (mainly), the product has been so enor- 

 mous, compared with former yields, the stock largely, if not chiefly, of 

 such inferior quality, and the market prices so much below a figure 

 satisfactory to the regular truck farmer, that the latter has aban- 

 doned it. The planters now enjoy a monopoly of this crop, and if 

 they were more careful to ship only fruit of good qualitj'- the return 

 would be more satisfactory and the whole industry more prosperous. 

 No melon of poor quality, faulty shape, or weighing less than 15 pounds 

 should be shipped. The crop has necessarily to be carried in bulk, is 

 subject, therefore, to more or less injury by handling during transit, and 

 every melon should be sound at the time of shipment. Melons should 

 not be planted at distances of miles from the raih-oads, involving delays 

 in the delivery at the stations and damage in transporting by wagon 

 over rough country roads. 



The A^ariety until very recently planted universally, in consequence 

 of its thick rind and good carrying capacity together with large size, 

 was the Eattlesnake. These turned out so poorly last year in size, 

 quality, and endurance, owing to the unfavorably wet season, while the 

 newly introduced Kolb Gem proved better in all these respects, that, at 

 least in the Eastern markets, the latter has displaced the former in popu- 

 lar favor. 



Boston and N"ew York are the best Eastern markets, but though the 

 steamers of these lines are capable of carrying large numbers (the New 

 York steamer having taken 70,000 at a trip), the bulk of the crop has to 

 be distributed to the various Western markets by rail, about 1,140,000 

 having passed over the Western and Atlantic Eailroad alone the past 

 season. The Ocean Steamship Company carried 457,687 to New York 

 and Philadelphia 5 the Boston Line 295,847. 



While a yield of 1,000 melons to the acre is not extraordinary, half 

 the number may be considered a fair crop of good shipping melons, such 

 only as should bo marketed. 



