Leading Apple Regions of the United States 33 



apples are grown here for the fancy trade demand and 

 jmdArieties usually bring good returns, due to the prox- 

 TmrT^to market. The average annual yields are less than 

 in western New York, due largely to soil conditions. The 

 future of the Hudson Valley fruit industry seems assured 

 on account of its proximity to market. 



NEW ENGLAND BALDWIN BELT 



The intensive apple sections of Maine, New Hampshire 

 and Massachusetts are included in what is known as the 

 New England Baldwin Belt, so called on account of the 

 prominence of the Baldwin variety. Beginning in south- 

 ern Maine, this region extends through southern New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, and into Connecticut, includ- 

 ing both the intensive and more scattered and outlying 

 apple plantings in this territory. In Maine the leading 

 apple counties are Oxford, Kennebec, Franklin and Andro- 

 scoggin; in New Hampshire, Rockingham and Hills- 

 boro; while the heaviest apple production in Massachu- 

 setts comes from Middlesex, Franklin and Worcester coun- , 

 ties. 



As above stated, Baldwin is the leading New England 

 variety, while Rhode Island Greening, Northern Spy, Mc- 

 intosh, -Wealthy, Gravenstein, Tolman, Ben Davis, Porter 

 and Stark have commercial importance. The New Eng- 

 land apple trees, like those of New York, are for the most 

 part old. Great numbers of them have gone out of com- 

 mercial bearing in recent years and especially during the 

 very cold winter of 1917-1918, when it was estimated that 

 over a million Baldwin trees of this section were killed. 



The gipsy-moth has done heavy damage to the orchards 

 in New Hampshire, and the commercial production for the 



