COMMERCIAL APPLE CULTURE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 



BY W. N. HUTT, HORTICULTURIST. 



The apple is the most widely distributed of tree fruits. It is 

 found growing on every continent of the globe. In the United States 

 it grows in every State of the Union, from the subtropic to the north 

 temperate zone. It is found from sea level to mountain top, with 

 every variety of soil and with every grade of humidity and aridity. 

 In this wide range it has almost every environmental change to which 

 a plant could well be subjected. Under all these varying conditions 

 it gives evidence of its likes and its dislikes by the varying degrees 

 of success to which it grows. 



Plants, like animals, have their preferences and also their means 

 of showing them. The environmental likes and dislikes of plants are 

 easily seen. When they are at home and comfortable in their sur- 

 roundings they give evidence of their satisfaction in increased growth 

 and production and in the highest quality of fruit. When they are 

 not comfortable they show a puny growth, scarcity of foliage, suscep- 

 tibility to the attacks of insects and diseases, lack of fruit and les- 

 sened longevity. 



It is interesting to note the instinctive desires of the apple tree and 

 what conformity it shows to local conditions. In the low altitudes 

 where the cotton plant is at home the apple tree is generally most 

 uncomfortable. Except with the early or summer varieties, it is 

 hard in such locations to keep apple trees in life. After resisting 

 conditions unsuited to them they have little power left for fruit pro- 

 duction. In the warm, sandy soils where sweet potatoes grow large 

 and sweet, apple trees lose their leaves and have a struggle for life 

 from season to season. On loamy or clay soils they feel more com- 

 fortable, show a correspondingly increased growth and productiveness, 

 are freer from disease and are longer-lived. Observations on apple 

 growing throughout the whole of this country show that the trees re- 

 quire for their best growth, productiveness and longevity the follow- 

 ing conditions : 



1. Zone Temperate. 



2. Climate Summer cool, winter cold. 



3. Soil Rich loams and clays. 



4. Altitude High. 



5. Rainfall Copious and constant. 



6. Drainage Good. . 



1. Sunlight Abundant (air clear and cloudless). 



8. Food ' Constant supply of humus and plant food. 



In America the regions that produce the most and best apples are 

 those that afford the largest number of these conditions. 



