8 
Bulletin 85. 
VALUE OF CHOICE SEED. 
Unless one has a well developed strain of seed, it is not prob¬ 
able that he can save more than one or two pounds per acre of 
extra selected seed, so the supply of choice seed is limited. 
The market value of the cantaloupe at the time the seed is 
saved should determine the price of seed. Thus, it requires about 
as many melons to produce one pound of seed as will fill a stand¬ 
ard crate, and actually more, because some melons need to be re¬ 
jected. This cannot be fnlly determined until the melon is cut, 
when, if it proves unfit for seed, it is also lost for market. So the 
price of seed must be equal to or exceed the price of a crate of 
melons at the time the seed was saved. 
During the first week or ten days of the shipping season at 
Rocky Ford, it is common to realize from two to six dollars per 
crate. No one at this time can afford to save seed to sell at the 
ordinary price per pound. Indeed, few growers are wise enough 
to save for their own use. 
At the average price of cantaloupes through the shipping 
season, the grower must realize at least a dollar per pound to war¬ 
rant him in .saving seed for the market. At the close of the ship¬ 
ping season, when melons are no longer marketable, the seed is 
willingly saved for what it will bring. This is the source of a 
large part of the seed on the market. 
The difference in value between seed saved early from per¬ 
fect melons, of high market worth, and that saved six weeks 
later, from immature, frost-bitten melons which cannot be mar¬ 
keted, is not often appreciated ; yet, if the higher priced seed 
should yield only one or more crates per acre of early melons, or 
increase the total yield by several crates, which the extra vitality 
and superior points of perfection can easily do, the higher priced 
seed is cheaper at any price, and its value to the melon industry 
cannot be estimated. 
