CHAPTER XVII 

 THE APPLE 



During the last decade notable progress has been made in apple 

 growing in California. The old idea that our conditions did not 

 favor excellence in the apple has given way to full assurance that 

 in wisely selected elevations and exposures the very highest points 

 of size, beauty, flavor, keeping and shipping qualities are secured. 

 Even before the wonderfully satisfactory test of both northern 

 and southern California apples at the New Orleans World's Fair, 

 it was clear that the right variety grown in the right place yields 

 an apple in California than which a better can not be grown any- 

 where, and during the last five years California early apples have 

 been in sharp request for shipment to all regions of the Northwest 

 and British Columbia, and California winter apples have been sold 

 at the highest prices east of the Rocky Mountains and in Europe. 

 Shipments beyond State lines of above one thousand and seven 

 hundred and forty-four car-loads in 1905 testify to these facts. 



Localities for Apples. Speaking generally, it may be laid down 

 that the great valleys of the interior are not well suited to the 

 apple; also, there are some situations which are much better than 

 others. In the early regions of the Sacramento Valley and foot- 

 hills, however, excellent early apples are profitably produced. In 

 the great valley and lower foot-hill region of the State, the late 

 apple usually lacks character and keeping quality. On the great 

 plains the tree is liable to sunburn, or sun blight, as it is called. 

 Some varieties, because of the character of their foliage, are less 

 liable to this injury than others, and -it is possible that this evil 

 may be finally overcome by the selection of varieties with blight- 

 proof foliage, as will be mentioned later. In the great valley, how- 

 ever, on the rich river-bottom land of the Sacramento and the San 

 Joaquin and its tributaries, the apple roots deeply, attains good size, 

 bears good fruit, with fair keeping quality, while but a few miles 

 away on the plains it is inferior. 



In the interior the region of adaptation to the apple lies at an 

 elevation on the foot-hills on both the east and west rims of the 

 great valley. Its limits are not well defined, but there are flour- 

 ishing orchards at an elevation of about four thousand five hundred 

 feet on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and from two 

 thousand to three thousand five hundred feet is commonly regarded 

 the best apple region of the mountains. The trees attain large 

 size and bear heavily, and the fruit, of well-adapted varieties, is 



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