ROCKY FORD—The Home of the Cantaloupe 
CANTALOUPES 
The growing and marketing of Cantaloupes has become so ex¬ 
tensive that it ranks with the most valuable of vegetable shipments. 
The value of this crop represents a gross of near ($50,000,000.00) 
Fifty Million Dollars annually and if to this we should add the value 
of Cantaloupes and Muskmelons grown in home gardens the sum 
would total much more. 
While the soil, climate, cultivation, grading, packing and market¬ 
ing are all very important, if the quality of the seed planted is not 
right failure is certain. Remember also the best of seed cannot 
make success certain without the other very important items being 
what they should be. 
Our part is to produce and supply our customers with the best 
seed of the best varieties. Our thirty-nine annual crops of canta¬ 
loupes and close association with the most successful market growers 
and shippers of the United States enable us to know these varieties 
and how to grow and select the seed to maintain and improve them. 
Different sections of the country produce certain varieties to 
better advantage than others. 
Imperial Valley of California the past few years has been using 
HALE’S BEST extensively, H. B. No. 36 being the favorite. Mildew 
has developed to such extent that mildew resistant strains are becom¬ 
ing more necessary. Next year we expect to have an improved strain 
of the Resistant No. 8. We are now able to offer the New Honey 
Dew Mildew Resistant No. 60. This variety is so uniform and of 
such high quality that we predict it will eventually displace the 
regular Honey Dew for growing in all sections. 
TURLOCK, CALIFORNIA, uses Hale’s Best No. 36, Superfecto and 
Honey Ball extensively. 
Tennessee, Arkansas. Texas, South Carolina and other southern 
points use HALE’S BEST, BOTH THE ORIGINAL AND No. 36, 
SUPERFECTO AND SOME HEARTS OF GOLD. 
New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, HEARTS OF GOLD, 
SUPERFECTO, ABBOTT’S PEARL, ORIGINAL H. B. and some H. B. 
No. 36 and POLLOCK 10-25. 
Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, HONEY ROCK, HEARTS OF GOLD, 
BENDER’S SURPRISE’ and TIP TOP. 
Large local markets often prefer the larger melons such as TIP 
TOP, BENDER’S SURPRISE, MILWAUKEE MARKET, EARLY 
OSAGE and ORIGINAL HALE’S BEST. 
With all cantaloupes the customer develops an appetite and buys 
regularly if the melons are always good, but poor melons destroy the 
desire for melons and those who would be good buyers turn to 
peaches and other fruits instead. 
Don’t pick cantaloupes green. 
Don’t pick cantaloupes from rusted vines* 
Don’t pick cantaloupes from aphis covered vines. 
Don’t pack melons you would not buy to eat yourself if you were 
the customer. 
Don’t buy cheap seed. Your crop costs about fifty dollars per 
acre, and often more, considering rental of land, before you begin to 
pick, and poor seed may cut the value of the crop in two and even 
more. Two to four dollars per acre for the best seeds is small com¬ 
pared with other costs. Buy the best seed. 
“Plant seeds of known origin.” 
We grow the cantaloupe seed we sell. 
GROWING CANTALOUPES 
For the control of Striped Cucumber Beetles and Aphis or plant 
lice, see pages 17 and 18. 
The land should be a sandy loam, avoiding both too sandy and 
too heavy soil. 
If possible, do not plant where cantaloupes were grown pre¬ 
viously within three or four years. 
A heavy oat stubble plowed under is one of the first locations. 
Bean land is usually very good. The first year after alfalfa or clover 
is not good as a rule. The melons grow too soft and are irregular 
in size, shape, netting and quality. The second year after alfalfa 
or clover is usually very good. 
Fall plowing is best, followed in the spring with several discings. 
If planted in hills the rows should be 5 to 6 feet apart each 
way. Cross cultivating improves the yield, quality and earliness. 
Plant ten to twelve seeds to the hill about 2 inches deep and 
thin to one or two plants when they have 5 or 6 leaves. 
If drilled in rows 5 to 6 feet apart thin to one plant every 3 
or 4 feet. 
Hoe carefully around the plants; keep free from weeds and culti¬ 
vate often. 
We have found 8 or 10 cultivations at least should be given and 
more would be better. 
We experimented upon a small area in the center of a large 
field, cultivating it some twenty times and the cantaloupes began 
ripening a week earlier, were of better quality and yielded much 
heavier. 
(Continued bottom page 43) 
34 D. V. Burrell Seed Growers Co-, Rocky Ford, Colorado 
