Cantaloupe Valley

Tarascan Indians and mestizos labored through the hot harvest days last week in the fertile western state of Michoacan. Through irrigated fields of the Apatzingan valley, the farmhands piled wagons high with golden cantaloupes, destined to bring premium prices in the U.S. market. On his model 250-acre farm, the man who made the cantaloupe the valley's top cash crop, estimated his own harvest profit at $20,000. "Give me three more years like this," said Albert Williams, a 37-year-old Californian, "and I'll be rich." His growing skill is making the valley rich with him.

When Williams settled in Michoacan in 1952, after boyhood on a dairy farm and seven years' work on a papaya plantation in Hawaii, he had papayas, not cantaloupes, in mind. He planned to crack the U.S. papaya market, and with him he brought two bags of Hawaiian seed; the native Mexican papaya is tasty, but cannot survive the trip north to market. With the warm approval of Michoacan's No. 1 citizen, ex-President Lazaro Cardenas, Williams began his papaya grove on 100 acres of rented land. But while waiting the two years for the trees to bear, he cast about for a quicker crop and decided to try a patch of cantaloupes.

The first vines raced over the rich black soil. "I never in my life saw so many melons per vine," said Williams. But they were too irregular in shape to please the U.S. buyer. Over the next three years, Williams developed his own crossbreed ("Imperial 45") to produce an even-sized melon. He sprayed for insects and fungus, bought 50 hives of bees to pollinate his plants. Early in 1956 he brought in the valley's first crop of premium U.S.-style melons. Buyers snapped them up, and other Apatzingan farmers rushed into the business. They even took up Williams' methods instead of relying on the old superstition of planting a red flag every 50 ft. to ward off insects and blights.

This year there are 15 U.S. buyers and three packing houses in the town of Apatzingan. The 1,500 carloads of cantaloupes shipped to the U.S. each year bring the farmers $1,680,000. In addition, the farmers earn about the same amount from cantaloupes and other fruit sold within Mexico. The cantaloupe boom has transformed Apatzingan from a dusty town of 1,500 to a bustling trade center of 15,000, with paved streets and modern stores. Williams now sports an air-conditioned 1958 Ford and has clear title to his 250 acres. Next autumn he hopes to sell Apatzingan tomatoes on the U.S. market for the first time.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.