THE GEOGRAPHY OF FRUIT GROWING 635 



widely. The same may be said of the banana. On the other hand, 

 though the date pahii and the fig are hardly less important, their actual 

 cultural range is much more restricted. 



Quality of product is certainly relatively unimportant in determining 

 geographic distribution. Best evidence on this point is obtained by a 

 comparison of varieties within a group, for it is hardly fair to compare the 

 quality of one group, for example the orange, with that of another, for 

 example the raspberry. Though Elberta is admittedly a second rate 

 peach in quality, it dominates the peach industry of America. The 

 Kieffer pear and the Ben Davis apple occupy similar, though perhaps not 

 quite so prominent, positions in their respective groups. 



Relation to Consuming Centers and Transportation Facilities. — The 

 location of large consuming centers and their relation to efficient systems 

 of transportation is very important in determining where many fruits, 

 particularly those of a more perishable character, are grown in quantity. 

 For instance a map showing the distribution of the strawberry industry 

 of North America indicates production centers close to nearly all the 

 larger markets; those production centers distantly located from large 

 markets are connected with them by good transportation systems. 

 The same statements hold for raspberry, blackberry and dewberry pro- 

 duction and to a certain extent for fruits like the peach, cherry and plum. 

 However, many centers of heavy production of these fruits are not par- 

 ticularly well located from the standpoint of nearby markets or quick 

 and cheap transportation. Almost invariably the presence of fruit 

 product plants of one kind or another makes possible the location of the 

 industry. Were it not that a comparatively large percentage of the 

 world's grape crop has been utilized for wine making for thousands of 

 years, it might be said that fruit product facilities are becoming of 

 increasing importance in determining the location of fruit production 

 centers. 



Sometimes factors that are more or less artificial operate, at least for a 

 time, in determining the development of large fruit industries. For in- 

 stance a large fruit product establishment may be located at some point — 

 its exact location being determined largely by considerations quite dis- 

 tinct from those concerned with fruit production. Within a short time 

 a large fruit industry develops in the vicinity of this plant to supply it 

 with fresh fruit. Had this plant been located a hundred miles away, the 

 first place would have raised no fruit commercially but the industry would 

 have developed around the other. It often happens that a pioneer 

 in some branch of horticulture makes a marked success of growing some 

 particular kind of fruit. His neighbors promptly follow him in the busi- 

 ness and soon a whole community or a whole section becomes famous for 

 its Cuthbert raspberries, or Mcintosh apples, or Evergreen blackberries 

 or Neunan strawberries. In the long run, however, a specialized indus- 



