22 The Fruit-Growers Guide-Book 



, of competing lines, such as two or more railroads or steam- 

 boat lines. It is true that transportation lines will enter 

 any section where there is business for them, but it takes 

 many thousands of acres of fruit to produce enough busi- 

 ness to induce a railroad to build into one's territory. It 

 is always best to locate the markets and ways of reaching 

 them, and then the location of the orchard can be more 

 easily selected. 



In the eastern portion of the United States it is less 

 difficult to get easy means of reaching one's market than 

 it is in the far western states, and in such locations the 

 matter of transportation may not be of such serious im- 

 portance, as soil which is adapted to the particular kind 

 of fruit that it is desired to grow. For the general run of 

 our orchard fruits, soils which are not excessively wet, or 

 too very sandy, will serve, although this may be varied to 

 some extent under local conditions. 



Altitude and latitude will affect the possibilities of com- 

 mercial orcharding, directly as it influences the climate. 

 In most of the mountainous sections of the country, how- 

 ever, fruit growing cannot be carried on at an altitude 

 much above 6,000 feet, as the growing season is generally 

 too short for a crop of fruit to be matured. Climatic con- 

 ditions influence the variety of fruit that may be grown, 

 although the greatest orchard fruit, the apple, is grown in 

 every state in the union and in every country in the world. 

 It, however, has its climatic limitations as a commercial 

 crop, doing better where the winters are cold and the sum- 

 mers not too long and hot. In the Southern states the 

 possibilities of apple orcharding are more limited than in 

 the Northern states, and the list of varieties confined more 

 particularly to the summer, or early maturing kinds. 

 Peaches have limitations of much the same kind, as some 

 types of peaches, the Peen-to especially, cannot be grown 

 with satisfaction outside of the extreme southern Gulf 

 coast country. 



The distance of the orchard from the shipping point 

 has an influence in the location of the orchard, as the labor 

 of transporting the fruit to the shipping point reduces the 

 profits, and increases the danger of spoiling the fruit by 



