32 



BULLETIN 401^ U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Rocky Ford district, located along the line of the Santa Fe Railroad, 

 which raises about 80 per cent green-meated muskmelons and 20 per 

 cent pink-meated; and the Ordway district, which is about 15 miles 

 north and northwest of the Rocky Ford district, located along the 

 line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and devoted exclusively to the 

 pink-meated Burrell Gem variety. Some stations as far as 60 to 80 

 miles east of Rocky Ford also ship a number of cars of muskmelons, 

 and these points are usually considered a part of the Rocky Ford 

 district, although they are separated by a stretch of country in which 

 no melons are grown. The production in Colorado has increased 

 somewhat of late years, but by no means in the same proportions as 

 in the Imperial Valley. The decided decrease in production in 1915 

 may be attributed to a short crop, due to late spring frost and a back- 

 ward season. The follomng is a table of shipments for several 

 years. 



Table 36. — Total shipments of mushnelons from Colorudo district, 1908-1915. 





Rocky- 

 Ford 

 district. 



Ordway 

 district. 1 





Rocky 



Ford 



district. 



Ordway 

 district.i 



1908 



Cars. 



615 



1,129 



1,324 



1,235 



Cars. 



1912 



Cars. 



1,132 



1,695 



1,732 



789 



Cars. 



1909 





1913 





1910 





1914 



942 



1911 



' 



1915 



228 











1 No figures available until 1914. 



The Colorado shipping season is the latest of any of the highly 

 important regions, extending from August 30 to October 13 in 1915, 

 but this was abnormally late. 



The acreages of individual growers are generally small, varying 

 from 2 to 20 acres, with only a few patches which are larger. The 

 muskmelon crop is one of a number of important crops, but few 

 growers specialise m it. The crop is marketed almost entirely under 

 contract between growers and distributors, although there is some 

 cash buying by distributors and commission men on the ground 

 during the season, which amounts to a small proportion of the total 

 shipments. The terms of contracts differ in the two districts. 



MARKETING ARRANGEMENTS. 



Rocky Ford Contracts. 



In the Rocky Ford section there are two distinct classes of grow- 

 ers — the tenant-farmer growers and the landowner growers. The 

 former are generally unable or unwilling to finance the growing of 

 their crops, and their marketing arrangements are usually based on a 

 guaranteed-advance-per-crate type of contract. Under such con- 

 tracts in 1915 the advances were generally 50 to 55 cents per standard' 



