152 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
Plate No. 10. 
A Convenient Arrangement 
for Packing. 
Marketing 
Marketing a crop of cantaloupes to 
good advantage is probably the most per- 
plexing phase of the industry; we might 
classify the different methods of market- 
ing in order to consider them: 
First, Selling to the Local Trade— 
There is little to be said on this, other 
than the grower already knows, good 
goods, and fair treatment. Second, Sell- 
ing on Consignment—This seems to be 
like “stepping out into the unknown,” 
there are so many uncertainties. There 
are several factors to consider here; the 
growers should be organized, in order to 
buy crates and load to advantage, they 
‘must take pains to find responsible com- 
mission men, they must plan to keep in 
touch with the markets, to know what 
the market needs and demands, and live 
up to their end of the deal in shipping 
only first-class cantaloupes; they should 
have some plan of co-operation so that in 
times of limited markets they could pro- 
rate the sales or limit the growers to a 
certain number of crates to be shipped 
per acre when the market was glutted, 
and only a certain amount should be sent 
to the market, as it is better to leave the 
cantaloupes in the field than to ship and 
lose the work and still injure the glutted 
markets. 
Probably the greatest encouragement in 
recent years for the cantaloup growers 
is the plan of the cantaloup distributors 
forming an exchange, and co-operating in 
holding the markets free from glutted 
conditions. The plan is to have the dis- 
tributors in a district get together each 
day and divide or prorate the shipments 
to certain markets, and not send to any 
one market more than it is possible for 
that market to dispose of; this plan was 
worked to perfection in the Imperial 
valley in California, and in the Rocky 
Ford district the season of 1911, and 
growers everywhere should refuse to deal 
with a commission firm who would re- 
fuse to co-operate in this way—growers’ 
melons have been used to fight their 
neighbors too long. Third, Marketing in 
Transit—There are several commission 
firms who make this a_=— specialty 
in handling the large shipments 
from the big melon districts; in reality 
it does not differ from the commission 
form of selling, only the organization of 
a marketing system to keep in touch with 
the different markets and their needs; 
this could be handled by a competent 
manager of a large association if it were 
not for the short season that the canta- 
loupes are handled from any one dis- 
trict, the large commission firms having 
the same organization that they can util- 
ize for other products; hence it is doubt- 
ful if there is any better plan than to 
market through some of the well es- 
tablished agencies. Fourth, Marketing 
for Cash—This is the Utopian idea of 
the growers everywhere, and as long as 
cantaloupes are selling well it is all 
right, but when the price goes down the 
cash buyer is gone. 
Strains and Varieties of Cantaloupes 
Rocky Ford 
There is a prevalent idea that there is 
a variety of cantaloup known as “Rocky 
Fords;”’ strictly, this is erroneous; unless 
it is a name to embrace the miscellaneous 
seed that is purchased from Rocky Ford. 
The fact is, the Netted Gem was the 
original variety used to develop the Rocky 
Ford cantaloup industry, but thirty years 
of selecting and crossing have developed 
greatly improved types that are distinct 
and very different in many respects; but 
there are really only two or three types; 
one,—the “Pollock,” has been renamed 
“Eden Gem,” ‘‘Netted Rock,” “Rust Re- 
sistant” and so on, and the selection ideals 
