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PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 



By WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, 

 Pomologist in Charge of Field Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



DEVELOPMENT OF FRUIT DISTRICTS. 



The rapidity with which the production, testing, and commercial 

 dissemination of new varieties of fruits is proceeding in a region 

 may fairly be taken as an index to the condition of fruit growing 

 therein. During the pioneer period the fruits planted are usually 

 those brought by the settlers from their former homes or obtained from 

 older settled regions of climatic conditions similar to those existing 

 in the new region in so far as they are understood. Later there fol- 

 lows a period of great activity in seedling production, during which 

 large numbers of varieties of local reputation are enthusiastically 

 disseminated before undergoing a test sufficiently extended and varied 

 to render possible even an approximate estimate of their relative 

 values for given conditions or particular uses. 



Gradually the strong and weak points of such varieties are as- 

 certained, and the lists for planting in particular regions and local- 

 ities, especially in commercial orchards and vineyards, are narrowed 

 down to comparatively few sorts. In America, during the past three 

 or four decades, the general tendency has been to reduce the number 

 of sorts planted to even a much smaller number than in corresponding 

 portions of the European continent. This has been largely due to 

 the influence of the commercial demand for solid carloads or even 

 trainloads of fruit of single varieties at one time to meet a market 

 demand in a more or less remote section of the country or even across 

 the sea. 



There is evidence of a reawakening of interest, however, in the 

 growing of a wider range of varieties of some of our more important 

 fruits, such as the apple, for purely commercial ends. There is also 

 indication of a growing discrimination in many markets between 

 general-purpose varieties of ordinary or indifferent quality and some 

 of the choice sorts which are particularly adapted to special uses 

 and therefore worthy of higher prices. 



Xew climatic districts are still being developed through the exten- 

 sion of suitable transportation facilities, as well as by the develop- 

 ment of water for the irrigation of soils rich in fertility but hitherto 

 lacking in moisture. The mastery of previously destructive insects 



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