322 



APPLE 



APPLE 



iinliinited. if the fruit is well packed and properly dis- 

 trihuteil, and the qiujntit.y of apples that Canada is able 

 to produce is enormous. For further information, see 

 Brilifh \orth America, Ilorlicullure in. 



W. T. Macoun. 



The arfl:; in the southern Alleghany Mountain 

 region. Fig. 270. 



With n^spect to climatic conditions, the AUeglumy 

 region presents the widest range of extremes within 

 short distances in ejistern North America. Extending 

 through nearly seven degrees of north latitude, its great 



270. The Alleghany apple region. 



valleys, plateaus, detached hills and long ridges vary in 

 elevation from 500 to more than 4,000 feet above sea- 

 level, presenting in their varied slopes almost every 

 angle of exposure to the sun. Correspondingly varied 

 soils occur also, often in close proximity, so that within 

 short distances, combinations of soil and climatic con- 

 ditions adapted to more widely differing types of plants 

 are found than elsewhere in the humid regions of the 

 United States. The extreme contrasts occur in western 

 North Carolina, where in the sheltered valleys and 

 thermal belts of the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, 

 the fig and the European grape are grown with a fair 

 degree of success within a few miles of higher lands well 

 adapted to a wide range of winter apples. 



While fewer chronological records have been pre- 

 Berve<l of the earlier history of apple-culture in this 

 region than is true of some of the more northern apple 

 districts, it is evident from scattered references that in 

 Bome localities in Virginia and North Carolina, rather 

 eystematic culture of this fruit was undertaken in a 

 small way at a verj' early date. 



It is known that as early as 1686 there was one apple 

 orchard of 2,.5(X) trees in Virginia, mostly grafted, and 

 that by the close of the seventeenth century, few plan- 

 tations in that state were without orchards. In tliese, 

 the apple w-as the leading fruit along with the peach, 

 the pear, the plum, the quince and some others. As 

 early as 1773 Thonuis Jefferson recorded in his "Gar- 

 den Book" the grafting of "Newtown Pippin" in Albe- 

 marle County, Virginia, and in 177S the planting of 

 these grafted trees on his Monticello estate. This 

 variety hiul apparently reached that section from the 

 vicinity of Philiwielphia a-s early as 175.'j in the form of 

 eions brought in the saddle-bags of Dr. Thom;is Walker, 

 the commissary officer of the Virginia troops in Brad- 

 dock's army, when he returned after the disastrous 

 defeat of that year. (See Bulletin 5, Division of Pomol- 

 og\', U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 360.-1898.) 



But if written records were entirely lacking, the large 

 Bize anfl evident age of the surviving trees about farm 

 dwellings and the abundant di.stribution of seedling 

 apple treits of great age and large size at the j)resentr 

 time would sufficiently establish the fact of early intro- 

 duction and the general a/laptabihty of the conditions 

 to the requirements of the apple. The late T. K. 

 Bruner, of North Carolina, cites an example of an 



orchard in Ha>Tvood County in that state in which, 

 though never cultivated, a hundred trees had attained 

 a size of full 3 feet in diameter of trunk, the largest 

 having a girth of 11 feet antl 9 inches. While these 

 exceptionally large trees are usually fountl in the lower 

 slopes or in mountain coves where the wash from the 

 moimtainsides above brings to them the moisture and 

 fertility of considerable aresis of land, many unoccupied 

 benches and gradual slopes exist where such soil 

 conditions could be appro.ximately dupUcated by the 

 orchardist. 



Varieties of the Alleghany region. 



While le-ss attention has probably been given in this 

 region to the systematic stiuly of the seedling fruits 

 that have originated there tlian in most of the earlier 

 settled parts of the country, upwards of fifty varie- 

 ties of the 319 included in the last catalogue of fruits 

 of the American Pomological Society are traceable to 

 this region. These include such commercially' impor- 

 tant varieties as Ben Davis, Grimes' Golden, Kinnard, 

 Paragon and Willow, together with such highly 

 esteemed home-use sorts as Bonum, Buckingham, 

 Gilpin, Pilot, Red June, Shockley, Summer King, Terry 

 and Virginia Beauty. R. L. Watts, working in Tennes- 

 see, and C. C. Newman, in South Carolina and Georgia, 

 have made a beginning in the canvass of the region for 

 valuable seedhngs in connection with their experiment- 

 station work, but this region undoubtedly remains at 

 the present time the most promising field in America 

 for the searcher after promising new varieties of apples. 



As in most of the earlier settled parts of the country, 

 commercial development of orchards in this region is 

 comparatively recent. The first plantings were solely 

 for home-supply. Later, small orchards were planted 

 for the production of sun-dried apples, cider, apple- 

 brandy and similar products in a commercial way, 

 rather than for the sale of the fresh fruit on any exten- 

 sive scale. So long as these uses determined the selec- 

 tion of trees for planting, httle attention was paid to 

 varieties, or, in fact, to the perpetuation of varieties at 

 all; hence the numerous small seedling orchards per- 

 sisting throughout the less accessible portions of the 

 region at the present time. Gradually, in certain locah- 

 ties, the quality of fruit produced gave the more dur- 

 able winter varieties a money value for marketing by 

 wagon, river-boat or railroad to more distant markets. 

 The longer-keeping Winesap and other winter apples 

 of Tennessee found profitable wagon-market demand 

 in the lower valleys of Alabama and Georgia where this 



,.^^^-^^ 



271. A mountain orchard, Virginia. 



fruit did not succeed. The Willow, Gilpin and Bentley 

 of th(^ northern Panhandle of West Virginia found eager 

 buyers when transported by boat down the Ohio and 

 Mississippi Rivers as far as New Orleans. The Yellow 

 Newtown, rechristened Albemarle Pippin in the county 

 of that name (under the impression that it was a dis- 



