Leading Apple Regions of the United States 31 



Hubbardston, Wealthy and Twenty Ounce comprise the 

 greater part of the remaining commercial production. 



As might be expected, large storage plants have been 

 built in nearly all of the apple towns. Some of the more 

 important apple centers are Rochester, Lockport, Medina, 

 Albion, Brockport, Sodus, East Williamson, North Rose, 

 Canandaigua and Holcomb. The barrel is used almost 

 exclusively and very little of the crop moves in bulk. 



A high percentage of the dried apple production of this 

 country comes from the western New York apple region. 

 For many years Wayne County has been the center of 

 dried apple production and in some seasons as much as 40 

 per cent of its crop is used for drying. Nearly every 

 orchardist in this county has his own drier, and the pro- 

 duction comes largely from small home driers rather than 

 from large commercial plants. 



There is considerable variation in the types of orchards 

 in western New York. Probably 80 to 90 per cent of 

 the bearing orchards are over twenty years of age and 

 there are many profitable orchards over fifty years old. It 

 is believed that the trees in this region reach their maxi- 

 mum bearing capacity at forty to fifty years. The earlier 

 plantings were set about 33 x 33 which proved too close 

 on account of the large size which the trees attained. New 

 plantings are being made 40 x 40. 



Orchard values in western New York have never reached 

 the high figure attained in some apple regions. Seldom 

 are bearing orchards valued at more than $500 an acre. 

 It is difficult to give orchard values in any region and 

 particularly in western New York where the orchard us- 

 ually goes with the farm and where varying care is given. 

 Some orchards are worth little more than the land they 



