32 BULLETIN 401, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; 
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 following is a table of shipments for several 
years. 
Table 1G. — Total shipments of muskmelons from Colorado district, 1908-1915. 
Rocky 
Ford 
district. 
Ordway 
district. i 
Rocky 
Ford 
district. 
Ordway 
district. 1 
190S 
Cars. 
615 
1,129 
1,324 
1,235 
Cars. 
1912 
Cars. 
1,132 
1,695 
1,732 
789 
Cars. 
1909 
1913 
1910 
1914 
942 
228 
1911 
1915 
1 No figures ayailable 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 specialize in 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 Fonn Contracts. 
In the Rock}- 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 
