APPLES 



105 



trees are well cultivated or mulched they 

 will produce small fruit. On account of 

 the continuous loss of moisture from 

 southern slopes it is found that the soils 

 on them are almost invariably thinner 

 and poorer than on northern slopes. Com- 

 parisons in the growth of natural forests 

 on northern and southern slopes bear out 

 the same idea. Western slopes give 

 brighter colors of fruit than eastern ones, 

 but they get the hottest rays of the sun, 

 and trees on them are much more subject 

 to sunscald. By care in cultivation and 

 pruning many of the drawbacks due to 

 slope can be overcome, but in any case 

 the sloping lands are to be preferred to 

 level ones for commercial orcharding. 



The steepness of the slope on which 

 it is practicable to plant orchards will de- 

 pend on circumstances. One often finds 

 apple trees in mountain regions that are 

 producing large quantities of beautiful 

 fruit in places that to a plainsman would 

 scarcely seem to be accessible with a fly- 

 ing machine. There is little doubt about 

 the trees doing well on very steep and 

 even rocky locations, but it is often next 

 to impossible to harvest the fruit there 

 economically. Mountain coves, even when 

 high up in the mountain sides, offer the 

 best possibilities for apple growing be- 

 cause they have natural irrigation and 

 excellent drainage, and their soils are 

 usually rich from the washing of the 

 enclosing slopes. Often, while steep, high 

 ridges may be entirely unsuited for apple 

 trees, the coves which they contain may 

 be almost ideal for the same crop. Na- 

 ture never intended the greater part of 

 mountain lands should bear anything but 

 forest Man in mountain regions too often 

 invades nature's realm, and thus we see 

 washed and gullied fields on which culti- 

 vation is impracticable. Orchards can 

 profitably go higher up the slope than any 

 other agricultural crop, but our better 

 judgment should not allow them to tres- 

 pass on Nature's domain. 



W. N. HUTT, 

 Raleigh, N. C. 

 Market Conditions 

 Another all-essential element in locat- 

 ing a commercial orchard is to select a 

 region where there will be ready trans- 



portation facilities. Many sections of Idaho 

 grow excellent apples, but in some of 

 these there have been no transportation 

 accommodations developed to handle com- 

 mercial quantities of this fruit. Undoubt- 

 edly it would be unwise to locate large 

 orchards in such sections. Locate the 

 markets and the ways of reaching them 

 first and then the question of the proper 

 location for the orchard can be rationally 

 considered. 



In connection with the selection of a 

 section where market communication is 

 guaranteed, advantage should be taken of 

 locating where there are two or more 

 ways by which the fruit may be taken to 

 market. Either two different lines of rail- 

 roads or a railroad and water-way are 

 decidedly advantageous. These competing 

 lines tend to reduce the freight rates 

 much below that usually maintained 

 when one public carrier has complete 

 monopoly on the entire shipping facilities. 



The finished product of an Idaho apple 

 orchard will not endure rough handling if 

 it is to be highly remunerative, hence it 

 is desirable that an orchard should not 

 be in a locality where long rough hauls 

 by wagons are necessary to reach the ship- 

 ping points. Moreover, transportation by 

 horses is exceedingly expensive even if 

 the roads are not rough and should be 

 minimized as much as possible. * * * 

 J. R. Shinn, 

 Moscow, Idaho. 



For a commercial orchard it is impor- 

 tant to be near a market if a home mar- 

 ket is to be supplied, or near a good trans- 

 portation line if a distant market is to 

 be supplied. It is not essential to be 

 near a market, for many of the large 

 apple orchards are hundreds of miles from 

 the market they supply. It is important, 

 however, to be near a good road and near 

 a railroad, for hauling over a bad road 

 bruises the fruit and thus injures its 

 appearance and keeping qualities. Cost 

 of hauling is considerable if the shipping 

 point is many miles from the orchard. 

 For a home orchard we select a location 

 near the home because convenience is one 

 of the many points to be considered. 

 H. C. Thompson, 

 Agricultural College, Miss. 



