RECORD BROKEN BY YEAR’S WATERMELON SHIPMENTS.
Carlot Movement Double that of 1918—Crop of Excellent Quality—Prices Decline Rapidly.
Shipments of watermelons by the end of September somewhat exceeded 44,000 cars. The movement had surpassed that of last year by nearly 5,000 cars and was much larger than that of any preceding year.
The great Florida-Georgia-South Carolina melon section has shipped about 25,000 cars. Three other States, Texas, California, and Missouri, shipped 3,000 to 5,000 cars each; Alabama and North Carolina shipped over 1,000 each; Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, 400 to 700 each; and 14 other States in smaller amounts. The season’s movement not only has exceeded the previous record-breaking volume of 1920 but is one-half greater than that of 1919 or of 1917 and more than double that of 1918.
INCREASE IN PRODUCTION.
Production the past three years has tended to increase rapidly in nearly all the leading watermelon States. Nearly 30,000 acres were planted in Texas compared with 38,000 in Georgia, the leading State, but shipments from Texas were greatly reduced by unfavorable weather. In most other sections conditions were favorable. Taking the watermelon section as a whole, there was a greater production from an acreage about the same as in 1920.
The East has been aggressively increasing its hold on the commercial production of watermelons during the past few seasons. Of the 5,000 cars constituting this season’s excess of shipments as compared with the movement last year, 3,000 cars came from the Southeast, about 1,000 cars from the Middle West, and a few hundred cars from the Far West.