From The American Agriculturist, 1878

We feel very sure that when a thing is needed, it will be supplied by some inventor. No one article in the market is more unmanageable than a watermelon. It is too large for the average basket, too troublesome to carry under the arm.

At all events, some genius has hit the popular want, and supplied what nature has failed to do: a handle, by which the watermelon can be as easily carried as any other parcel.

The essential part is the handle made of bass wood. This has a sufficient supply of strong twine, and two "beckets" of the same wood to distribute the pressure. When the melon is harnessed and ready for travel, it appears as in the figure.

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