Shipping Watermelons to Market 109 



These are all excellent, showy melons, and, while not as 

 good shippers as the famous Kolb Gem, which I planted 

 first in 1884, they are superior in table qualities. A 

 peculiarity of the Jones is that a ten -pound melon car- 

 ries the same good table qualities as the largest in the 

 patch. Florida Favorite is an early, oblong, striped melon 

 of superior table qualities. It is too small for shipping 

 even if it had the carrying qualities, but for home use it 

 has few superiors. Blue Gem has become very popular 

 as a shipping melon, and is highly prized also for table 

 use. It has become quite a favorite in this section. The 

 rind of this melon is a bluish green, uniform all over. 

 A solid -colored melon is much more liable to sun -scald 

 than one with striped rind. This is true whether the 

 color is solid white, green or black. A large number of 

 superior shipping varieties have been developed in the 

 last twenty years. A round melon bears the pressure of 

 its companions better than an oblong shape, because it 

 presents a double arch to the pressure, while the oblong 

 form is arched only laterally. Kolb Gem was a pioneer 

 in this line. This, besides being round, has not a thick, 

 but a hard outside rind and a very firm flesh. All of the 

 Jones are good shippers, and so are Mammoth Iron Clad, 

 Dixie and others. 



The advance in watermelon -growing for market has 

 been phenomenal and interesting. In 1867, sitting in 

 front of the old Planters' Hotel at Augusta, Ga., I saw 

 an Irishman across the street packing large Georgia 

 Rattlesnake melons in crockery crates, lining the crates 

 with straw. I was told that he was making money ship- 

 ping in that way to the northern cities. In 1876 — ten 



