9 BULLETIN 1250, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
melons before any trace of yellow color has developed and while the 
rind is hard. Naturally this has resulted in picking melons which are 
too green, so that often consumers buy them with flesh that is shriveled 
and tough, lacking in color and odor, and disappointing in flavor. 
Both the grower and the packer are interested in preventing the 
shipment of immature melons, since “the shipping of green melons 
is probably the quickest way in which to ruin the demand in all 
markets.”’? : 
PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION. 
The purpose of the investigation here reported was to devise suit- 
able tests Ey which the stage of development of cantaloupes can be 
judged and by means of which growers and packers may be sure that 
mature melons are selected and immature ones left on the vine. 
Information as to the changes that take place in the composition of 
melons after being picked also seemed desirable, in order to deter- 
mine whether their composition at the time they are sold to the 
consumer is an indication of their condition at the time of picking. 
It seemed necessary, therefore, to study the composition of melons 
at different stages of their maturity to ascertain, if possible, what 
relation exists between the eating quality of the fruit and its compo- 
sition and to determine to what extent the external appearance can be 
correlated with the internal condition. From these relations a limit 
below which melons could be regarded as unsuitable for marketing 
might be fixed. 
INVESTIGATIONAL WORK. 
PLAN OF EXPERIMENTS AND METHODS USED. 
Place.—The principal experiments were conducted at Brawley and 
Turlock in 1916, at Brawley in 1917, and at Brawley, Porterville, and — 
Turlock in 1920 and 1921. A little work was also done in Brawley in 
1918 and 1919, and in Turlock in 1918. In addition, cantaloupes 
were planted in special plots at Garden Grove, in 1917, and at Alta- 
dena, in 1919, and the growth of individual melons was followed 
closely from the blooming period to maturity. The rapidity of the 
erowth of the melons is shown in Figures 1 and 2. About four weeks 
elapse between the time the melon sets and its maturity. 
bopen The only variety of netted melon commercially impor- 
tant at present in the districts mentioned is the Pollock No. 25 or 
Salmon Tint. Some data were obtained on Eden Gems and Karly 
Waters in 1916 (Table 13), but commercial plantings of these va- 
rieties ceased after that year and the experiments with them were 
discontinued. 
Sampling—Samples were obtained for analysis by different 
methods, depending on the purpose for which selections were made. 
Some of the melons were picked from the vines by the investigators; 
some were selected by collaborators in the Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics of the United States Department of Acriculture; and 
others, picked by commercial pickers, were taken by the investi- 
gators from field boxes or packing bins. Frequent examinations of 
commercially packed melons ready for shipment have also been 

7O. W. Schleussner and C. W. Kitchen. Marketing and Distribution of Western Muskmelons in 19165. 
U.S, Dept. Agr. Bul. 401 (1916), p. 13. 
