1911. 
Ruralisms 
THE CASABA MELON. 
Many fruit lovers there are who re¬ 
gard a prime muskmelon as about the 
acme of horticultural excellence. The 
small-fruited varieties of the Rocky Ford 
and Emerald Gem types so commonly 
grown in this country leave, when at 
their best, little to be desired in the way 
of flavor, appearance and aroma, but 
there is always demand for greater size 
if it can be had without serious sacrifice 
of other good qualities. None of our 
eastern varieties quite fills the void, but 
there has long been cultivated in the hot 
interior valleys of California a strain 
of Persian melons under the group name 
of Casaba that unites high quality with 
imposing size. Casabas have been grown 
for the past 40 years, as the best of 
many varieties of Asiatic melons dis¬ 
tributed by the U. S. Commissioner of 
Agriculture soon after the close of the 
Civil War, and have become so popular 
throughout California as to largely dis¬ 
place for home use other types of musk- 
melons. According to old growers the 
original form has been lost, but its ex¬ 
cellencies largely survive in the varie¬ 
ties known as Bidwell and Los Angeles 
Casabas, vigorous growers, producing in 
the deep soils and under the hot, bright 
skies of the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin valleys melons of truly delicious 
quality, running from eight to 24 pounds 
in weight. The flesh in good specimens 
is creamy white, quite two inches in 
thickness, juicy and crystalline in tex¬ 
ture, extremely sweet, but with a capti¬ 
vating flavor all its own. Externally, 
they are dark, rugged, devoid of netting 
and not especially attractive. There is 
also less fragrance than is associated 
with the smaller kinds of melon, but 
this by manv is regarded as an ad¬ 
vantage. When Casabas are available, 
from August until November, there is 
little demand for other sorts. The 
Rocky Ford and other good little kinds 
have their innings in early Summer, but 
are forced to make way for the lordly 
Casabas as soon as the latter ripen. 
These fine melons, much reduced por¬ 
traits of which are given on page 259, 
retail locally for 10 to 20 cents each, 
but on account of poor carrying quality 
are now rarely shipped to distant mar¬ 
kets, though the nearly-related hard- 
fleshed Winter or Pineapple melons of 
the Pacific coast are occasionally sent 
East in small quantity for the Winter 
holiday market. 
These Western Casabas evidently be¬ 
long to the true cantaloupe type of 
muskmelons, Cucumis Melo, var. Can- 
talupensis, and have little affinity with the 
soft-rinded melons usually listed as can¬ 
taloupes by seedsmen. True cantaloupes, 
as a tribe, are of exceedingly vigorous 
growth, with large dark foliage, borne 
on stems or petioles long enough to 
shelter the young fruits from the burn¬ 
ing sunshine, in which the plant, as a 
whole, delights. The vines are long and 
stout and the root system deeply spread¬ 
ing, adapting the plant for hot dry and 
semi-arid soils on which only the fruits 
reach perfection. The pistillate or fe¬ 
male blooms, moreover, are generally 
provided with fertile stamens—a rare 
feature indeed in the melon family— 
which tends to maintain the fixity of 
type by greatly lessening the chances of 
crossing with other races. The fruits 
as a rule are large, there is little netting, 
and the rind is much harder than in 
the melons of the widely grown nutmeg 
or Reticulatus section we are all famil¬ 
iar with. There is rarely separation of 
the stem when ripe. Maturity can only 
be judged by the development of slight 
aroma or more particularly by softening 
of the rind at blossom end, evident on 
pressure, as there is no great change of 
color as maturity progresses. There are 
endless varieties known, cultivated ex¬ 
tensively from the earliest times in the 
hotter and more arid sections of cen¬ 
tral Asia, northern Africa and southern 
Europe. But few true cantaloupes have 
found lodgment in America, notwith¬ 
standing the name is grossly misapplied 
for commercial purposes. Persia may 
be regarded as headquarters for canta¬ 
loupe melons, as they are immensely 
popular in that portion of the Orient, 
and are said by travelers to be there 
grown in greatest perfection, yet of the 
many Persian varieties imported only 
the kinds now known in California as 
Casaba appear to have really pleased 
our people, and they are certainly good 
enough to. stand by. Most cantaloupes 
have peculiar and even unpleasant flavors 
from the Occidental standpoint, but the 
Pacific Casabas rarely fail to please 
•y melon connoisseurs in this respect. As 
THE RURAL* NBC w- YORKER 
Casabas require at least 100 days of hot, 
cloudless sunshine for their perfect de¬ 
velopment, it is not likely they can be 
well grown under the duller skies and 
in the humid air of our Gulf States, no 
matter how high the temperature may 
run. In the deep western soils with 
good capillary movement of soil mois¬ 
ture they can be grown without irriga¬ 
tion, but, as a rule, the judicious appli¬ 
cation of water during the growing sea¬ 
son greatly increases the yield without 
harming the quality. The plants are sub¬ 
ject to wilt disease and other melon 
troubles if repeatedly grown on the same 
soil, so it is usual to select new ground 
yearly, choosing, where available, the 
deepest sandy loams. Under favorable 
conditions the yield is good, two or 
three of the great luscious fruits matur¬ 
ing on each plant, but considerable space 
is needed, the hills being usually placed 
not less than eight feet apart. At local 
prices good Casabas probably return 
grower and consumer mutually as great 
satisfaction as any western horticultural 
product. 
California Casabas have split into va¬ 
rieties having local excellencies as well 
as different seasons of ripening. They 
are usually called hybrids, but to the 
writer they appear merely cultural va¬ 
riations. 1 hese Casabas, in common 
with others of the true cantaloupe sec¬ 
tion, have so little in common with the 
soft-rinded melons that only one rather 
doubtful cross was secured last year out 
of 100 careful pollinations between the 
Bidwell and Los Angeles varieties and 
many of our best commercial musk¬ 
melons of the familiar type. The pecu¬ 
liarity of producing bi-sexual or perfect 
blooms and the manifest dislike to hy¬ 
bridization with other muskmelon races 
goes far to maintain fixity of character. 
These fine varieties should be tried in 
many portions of the country where they 
are now unknown, though there is no 
great hope of getting good results except 
under the narrow conditions mentioned. 
Seeds may be had from all California 
seed dealers. 
The Casaba muskmelon of eastern 
seed catalogues, said to have been one 
of the parents of the esteemed Miller 
Cream variety, bears good-sized, long, 
netted fruits with green flesh of gener¬ 
ally good quality. It plainly belongs, 
however, to the Reticulatus or soft- 
rinded section, and is well adapted to 
the ordinary cultural conditions of the 
Eastern States. The name of Casaba is 
taken from a rather mythical locality in 
Asia Minor where melons are said to 
thrive exceptionally well. It is unfor¬ 
tunate that this designation should be 
applied to such different varieties. 
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