No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 653 



are such that one can afford to have some waste land — from |3.00 

 an acre up. Well improved land including buildings may be had 

 at |30 to |40 an acre. 



In the southwestern part of the State we have three series of 

 industry has been developed, and here in Mercer, Lawrence, Craw- 

 ford and southern Erie counties the glacier has passed, forming an- 

 other important area of Volusia soils where orchards can be grown 

 successfully. Land prices are slightly higher than in the last dis- 

 trict described but still they are only forty to fifty dollars an acre, 

 with sixty dollais for very good improved laud with good buildings. 

 Just to the south are excellent markets, although not so remarkable 

 as the Coal markets of the northeastern part of the State. In many 

 localities within this region there are splendid opportunities to 

 grow special crops. One of the cases 1 have in mind is that of a 

 young man from one of these towns who came to me up at State 

 College the other day and said he wanted to grow fruit. His father 

 is a fruit dealer but he said, "1 don't believe I am Avorth as much 

 lo the business in town as I am on a farm not far distant which my 

 father owns, and I would rather develop the farm. Similar cases 

 are not infrequent at the present time. Near Pittsburg special crops 

 can be grown to advantage for that market. 



In the southwestern part of the State we have three series of 

 soils: The DeKalb, previously mentioned; the Brooke series, de- 

 rived from limestones but still very different from the HagerstoAvn 

 soils that come from the limestone of southeast and central Penn- 

 svlvania; and the Westmoreland soils which come from a mixture 

 of shale and limestone, making very good soils. If it were not for 

 the injury from coke smoke these should be very productive soils. 



Now, I have gone over this map upon Avhich are indicated only 

 the broad divisions of soils very hurriedly and will not take any 

 nu)re time in a general description of soil conditions unless there are 

 some questions. Considering the present prices pf land and soil 

 conditions, there are three forms of orcharding that may well be 

 developed with jjrofit. First, the commercial orchard — and there- 

 are two waj's to work along this line, — one, by the extensive method, 

 and the other by the intensive. The goal of the first is to produce 

 a large number of carloads, but with the other the quality of the 

 fruit is the first desideratum, the qualit}' the second. The first 

 means more acres, the other more salable fruit per acre. I believe 

 the most profitable type of commercial development is a combina- 

 tion of these two forms. One ma}^ hardly plant too large an acreage 

 until the point is reached where excellent care is sacrificed in some 

 measure, owing to the large extent of the orchards. This will vary 

 much with circumstances, but I believe it is very easy for a man to 

 plant so large an acreage that he is compelled to neglect some of the 

 finer points of the business, even from the strictly commercial view- 

 point; and there is a question as to where this point comes — where 

 the individual acreage should stop. In planting, the character of 

 the market must be taken into consideration, and those who adof»t 

 Mr. Farnsworth's idea of growing for a special market must include 

 varieties that ripen during a long season, from early to late. This 

 particular method of intensive growing is coming to have more and 

 more influence on orchard development. 



