To be literate and educated is never enough. The watermelons I loved were suddenly new. I rushed toward the pallet at the front of the store where they were confined in bins, waiting to be handled, to be chosen. The seedy and the seedless. The mealy and the meaty. One of them – just one – would be perfect, and waiting for me.

Any watermelon grower can grow their own seed with very little trouble, as a small number of choice melons will furnish enough seed for planting his crop; in fact, four or five average melons will yield a pound of seed. The proper method of selecting the seed melons is to go through the field prior to the first picking and mark a number of melons having the desired type, color, and general characteristics. In making the selection, vigor and freedom of the vine from disease should be taken into consideration. One of the best methods of marking them is to tie pieces of white cloth to the stems of the melons. The marked melons should be allowed to remain on the vines until fully ripe, then carried to a safe place, and after 2 or 3 days of additional ripening should be opened and the seed separated from the pulp.