CHAPTER XXXIII 

 THE GEOGRAPHY OF FRUIT GROWING 



Certain fruits like the apple are grown throughout most of the tem- 

 perate regions of both hemispheres, the industry in the case of the apple 

 reaching its height in the northern half of the United States and Europe 

 and in the southern part of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. The 

 pear is cultivated throughout practically the same range; its quantity 

 production is much more localized. Sweet cherry production is developed 

 mainly in the western nations of Europe and the western states of North 

 America. None of these fruits is of great importance in South America, 

 though the grape, which is grown along with the apple and pear in North 

 America, Europe, Asia and Australia is an extremely important fruit 

 on that continent. On the other hand, certain fruits have very restricted 

 geographic ranges. The date is grown mainly in countries bordering the 

 Mediterranean, the jaboticaba in parts of Brazil, the jujube in central 

 China, the pecan in the southeastern United States, the loganberry in 

 Washington, Oregon and California. The accompanying maps (Figs. 

 59 to 64) present graphically a few interesting facts regarding the geo- 

 graphic distribution of certain of the more common fruits. Incidentally 

 Figs. 59 and 60, representing total apple production and total number of 

 apple trees of bearing age in the United States in 1909, show that actual 

 production is often not proportional to ti'ee number. 



The distribution of individual varieties is equally interesting. For 

 instance the Fameuse apple is of great importance in the St. Lawrence 

 river region, the Yellow Bellflower in parts of California, the Huntsman 

 in Missouri; Yellow Newtown is important in New York, Virginia, 

 Washington, Oregon, California, Tasmania and New South Wales. 



It is one thing to construct a map which shows the geographic dis- 

 tribution of various fruits; it is quite another to find the exact reasons for 

 this distribution. Without doubt many factors are operative. Some 

 are of relatively great, others of much less, importance. A single factor 

 may' be decisive with one fruit, an entirely different factor with another 

 and a group of several factors may be of almost equal importance in a 

 third case. 



LIFE ZONES, CROP ZONES AND FRUIT ZONES 



In a broad way the fruit zones of the world coincide more or less closely 

 with the general life zones and crop zones, though the pomologist may use 



612 



