652 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



less lluui lliat, will buy excellent orcliard laiul in that region within 

 a few miles — I'lxMiuentlv not more than ten, and very often not more 

 than live — of the AA'yoming N'alley markels, which aie among the 

 best in the rnitc*! States. Yon all know that the coal town markets, 

 whether located in the anthracite or the soft coal regions, are won- 

 derfully good. And even if the commercial orchaids sliouhl he de- 

 veloped to such extent that these local markets could not take all 

 their products, they are within a short distance from New York an<l 

 other eastern cities with an aggregate ]ioj)iilafion of many millions 

 of people. This is where the winte^ varieties can he grown to mar- 

 ket advantage. The Northern Si)y, Belltiower, Baldwin, Stark, 

 Kliode Island (Jreening and many other excellent varieties can 

 be grown ])rofitalily in this region. I will not take the time to 

 enumerate many varieties, but the Northern Spy iuterplanted with 

 Wagoner, w^hich also does remarkably well there makes a very ef- 

 fective combination. There are men from that section attending the 

 meetings here this week who own orchards that the Wagener has 

 paid for by the time the Northern Spy came into bearing. One 

 other advantage that district has in growing the Northern Spy is 

 that it comes into bearing sooner after planting than in most sec- 

 tions of New York, in fact it w'ill average to bear in the Wyoming 

 ^''alle3^ region three years earlier than in Connecticut or New York. 

 Now, this is a remarkable advantage which the state possesses, and 

 there is perhaps no apple of finer quality than Northern Spy when 

 well grown. Besides the Wagener there are other early bearing 

 sorts that have given excellent results as fillers, especially the Wealthy 

 and Oldenburg. 



I w^ant to say just here — though it is somewhat of a break in 

 the subject — that at the Lancaster meeting a few years ago I said 

 that the Baldwin and Spy would not do their best on the same kind 

 of soil, that a light soil brought the best results with the former 

 variety and that a soil somew'hat heavier was preferable for the 

 Spy. Some one attending got the idea from what I said that neither 

 of these varieties could be grown Avith any degree of success on any 

 other kind of soil than the ideal described. Now, I hope I did not 

 present the subject in quite so obscure a manner as that, in fact I 

 am sure the records do not so state, but if anyone else did get that 

 idea from anything I said I want to correct it. My idea is that 

 within a given set of climatic conditions there is an ideal in soils 

 for certain varieties and that in orchard planting we should aim to 

 select those soils that come nearest the ideal conditions for the dif- 

 ferent varieties. If the best possible soil for each variety is not 

 available the trees should be planted on the soil that comes nearest 

 the ideal, and one should ahvays work with that end in view. 



In the central northern part of the State (indicating on the map 

 the following counties: Warren, Forest, McKean, Elk, Cameron, 

 Venango, and northern Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion) the con- 

 ditions are quite different. The altitude is high— say 1,600 to 2,200 

 feet, or possibly 2,500 feet— and the soils are quite different. The 

 region has not been glaciated at all, and the sandy types of moun- 

 tain soils predominate. The district is not generally so w^ell adapt- 

 ed to orcharding as some others, though good soil locations may 

 readily be found. There is a good deal of waste land, but the prices 



