4 
Bulletin 108. 
ceeding year, new growers were added, and as the markets began to be 
more fully supplied with cantaloupes, they were sometimes over crowded 
at the height of the season; one year while I was there, the growers met 
and apportioned the markets, each grower agreeing to ship only to his 
own, during the rush of the season, thus equalizing the supply to the 
various markets. 
At the commencement of the cantaloupe industry, a com¬ 
paratively small area was under cultivation. Such farms as were 
found along the Arkansas were principally stock ranches, pro¬ 
ducing hay, grain and alfalfa seed. The gross returns from any 
of these crops were comparatively small, and the valuation of 
land was consequently low. In the vicinity of Rockyford, even 
as late as 1897, choice lands under ditches with the best water 
rights were purchased for fifty dollars per acre. Hon. G. W. 
Swink and other early settlers who were interested in the de¬ 
velopment of the valley, were enterprising in their efforts. In 
1889 Mr. Swink attended a Beet Sugar Convention held at Grand 
Island, Neb., with a view of interesting the Oxnard’s in the Ar¬ 
kansas Valley as a suitable location for a Beet Sugar factory. 
He became convinced that the farms in the Arkansas Valley were 
too large and the population too small to offer any inducement 
to the sugar beet industry at that time. He had the hope, how¬ 
ever, that the cantaloupe industry, which had already brought en¬ 
couraging returns, would provide a larger population and smaller 
farms, and thus bring about the conditions necessary for the beet 
industry. Accordingly on his return to Rockyford he set to work 
to encourage every available settler. His lands near Rockyford 
were divided into five and ten acre tracts; and opportunities to 
secure homes were freely offered to health seekers without means, 
good intention being the principle requirement. The lucrative 
promise of the cantaloupe industry, as well as the light character 
of the work, appealed to an intelligent class of people who found 
the climatic conditions of the East too severe. 
The public spirit which was early manifested, as well as the 
enterprising character of the community, were potent factors in 
the development of the cantaloupe industry and led to the in¬ 
tensive farming which has since characterized the vicinity of Rocky¬ 
ford. 
During ten or twelve years, small farms devoted to canta¬ 
loupe culture were constantly increasing. Some growers, for¬ 
tunate in getting early melons and in shipping to reliable com¬ 
mission merchants, received gratifying returns; others from various 
causes received but poor returns and bewailed their fate in ever 
coming to the valley. 
During the latter part of the first decade, it became evident 
that the production of cantaloupes had. reached the limit of the 
