this cross, following our usual procedure of growing one crop in the field 

 and two self-pollinated crops indoors, the purification of a new desirable 

 variety has been rapid. A simple test for toughness of rind is to cut away 

 from the flesh a small strip of rind and then bend it between the fingers. 

 Those fruits having a rind which may be bent nearly into a circle without 

 breaking were selected as being most desirable. 



Selections also have been made for melons with bright red flesh and 

 relatively few black seeds. The result is a new midget variety with light 

 green skin color which matures early, is productive, very sweet, and which 

 has kept for a month in the field after frost in good condition. This con- 

 venient icebox or midget watermelon should be suitable for shipment to 

 distant markets. 



Orange-Rind Watermelons 



New Hampshire Midget watermelon was developed primarily for home 

 garden use. Since its introduction, it has been grown commercially also 

 over wide areas. This melon of small convenient size is so early that some 

 gardeners, not realizing that the melons could be ripe in 65 to 70 days 

 after direct planting of the seed in the open field, have allowed the melons 

 to spoil before they thought them ready for use. A frequent complaint has 

 been that the grower could not easily tell when his watermelons were ripe. 

 Mr. M. Hardin, Geary, Oklahoma, sent to us for trial a variety called 

 Pumpkin Rind. This interesting watermelon has a rind green in color up 

 until the melon ripens at which time it turns orange-yellow. The flesh was 

 pink in color and of only fair edible quality. Seeds were nearly white with 

 only a small spot of dark color. A cross was made with New Hampshire 

 Midget to develop a small size high quality melon that would turn orange 

 when ripe, this color change to serve as a criterion for telling when the 

 fruit was ready for harvest. 



This new midget watermelon turns orange when ripe. It is not ready for intro- 

 duction yet, but it should be popular because of its built-in ripeness indicator. 



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