370 The Commercial Apple Industry 



indicative of the adaptibility of apples to any certain re- 

 gion as the average yield. It is not more difficult to rise 

 above the average in a naturally high yielding community 

 than in a low yielding one, and the grower ordinarily 

 would better strive to improve a good soil than to build 

 up a poor one. The question of soil influences cost of pro- 

 duction so greatly as to warrant the most careful consider- 

 ation. 



Climate determines in a broad way where apples may 

 be grown. Apples are confined to the temperate zone. 

 In the United States, the irrigated valleys of the North- 

 west, the northern states, and the higher portion of the 

 southern states are best adapted, and yet throughout these 

 regions frost does enormous damage to the apple crop every 

 year. There are certain favored sections which frost sel- 

 dom damages, such as the Wenatchee Valley of Washing- 

 ton and certain limited sections in the East. Freedom 

 from frost damage means greater annual yields and con- 

 sequently more profit and less cost of production. 



INFLUENCE OF VAEIETIES 



Varieties influence cost of production, inasmuch as some 

 are more easily grown than others, and there is a wide dif- 

 ference in yield in orchards of the same age and under 

 like conditions of management. Such varieties as Esopus, 

 Arkansas Black, Winter Banana and Xewtown are more 

 costly to grow and produce than Ben Davis, Winesap, 

 Baldwin, Greening and York. Ben Davis, although one 

 of the lowest priced apples in the market, is one of the 

 heaviest yielders and is no doubt generally produced at a 

 lower cost than any other commercial apple. The follow- 

 ing table shows the relative cost of production a unit of bar- 



