AN APPLE ORCHARD SURVEY OF ORLEANS COUNTY, NEW YORK. 465 



Area planted to apples. The census of 1900 shows that there were at 

 that time 629,401 apple-trees of bearing age in Orleans county. Since 

 the average number of trees per acre is 41.5 (table 15), the total area 

 of trees of bearing age must have been about 15,200 acres. Adding to 

 this the 1,300 acres of young trees (8 per cent of the total area, see table 

 16), gives a total of 16,500 acres of apples in the county. 



The entire area of the county is 399 square miles, so that there is an 

 average of 41 acres of apples per square mile. The area of improved 

 land in farms is 205,279 acres.* Of this area, 6.9 per cent is planted to 

 apples. Nearly all of the orchards are in the north two-thirds of the 

 county. A total of 1,530 acres were examined in Carlton township, which 

 has an area of about forty-six square miles. The area of apples in this 

 township is probably nearly 2,000 acres, as only orchards as large as four 

 or five acres were examined. 



TILLAGE. 



Acreage of tilled and unfilled orchards. About eleven per cent of the 

 mature orchards have been tilled every year for at least five years ; 33 

 per cent have been in sod for at least the same period ; the others have 

 been tilled more or less (table i). 



TABLE i. 

 Treatment prior to 1904. Mature orchards. 



Twenty per cent were tilled in 1904. About half of the remainder were 

 pastured and half not pastured. A marked contrast with Wayne county 

 is shown in the very large area pastured by sheep. The area given, as 

 pastured by cattle is doubtless too small, as some orchards that had been 

 used as a cattle pasture early in the season were not so used at the time 

 of the survey, and were not reported as having been so used (table 2). 



Thirty-six per cent of the young orchards were in sod in 1904, and 

 9 per cent were sown to grain crops. The remaining 55 per cent were 



* Twelfth Census, 1900. 



