CHAPTER XXIV. 



MELONS. 



THE CANTALOUP OR MUSKMELON. Cucumis melo. 

 French, melon; German, melone; Dutch, meloen; Italian, popone; 

 Spanish, melon; Portuguese, melao. 



THE WATERMELON. Citrullus vulgaris. 



French, melon d'eau; German, wasser-melone ; Italian, cocomero; 

 Spanish, sandia; Portuguese, melamia. 



* 



From the manner in which they are eaten melons should be 

 classed with fruits ; from the manner in which they are grown they 

 are more closely related to vegetables. Their nearest botanical rel- 

 atives, also, are of the vegetable class. They evidently cannot be 

 excluded from this work because of their aspiration to rank with 

 the fruits. 



California is characteristically great for melons; not only for 

 their great size and excellence, but for the long season during 

 which they are available for table use. Their delight in interior 

 heat, their tolerance of drought, their immense size, when both 

 heat and moisture combine for their advancement, constitute ex- 

 ceptional adaptations for semi-tropical climates, in which they have 

 been famous from the earliest times. California answers their 

 needs to the fullest degree, and they have naturally attained great 

 local esteem and popularity. The length of the f restless season 

 and the varying degrees of spring and summer heat in different 

 parts of the state give us command of early and late melons be- 

 yond that of any other part of the country, as will be noted pres- 

 ently. For this reason California melons have during the last 

 decade and a half figured largely in national trade eastward and in 

 shipment to northern Pacific ports. California's position in the 

 melon production of the United States is shown by the Monthly 

 Crop Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for June 

 1917 to be as follows: 



Acreage of cantaloups 17,300 



Products in crates . . 3,206,700 



Of this acreage and product, which comprises about 9000 car- 

 loads, three-fourths are credited to the Imperial valley and one- 

 fourth to the San Joaquin valley. California produces 41 per cent 

 of all the cantaloups of the United States and leads all the states, 

 her nearest rival being Georgia wfth 6700 acres. In watermelons, 

 however, the situation is reversed and Georgia leads the country 

 by a large plurality in acreage and product. An ingenious statis- 

 tician has figured out that California's total cantaloup crop can 

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