10 BULLETIN 1189, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



VIRGINIA VALLEY AND RIDGE REGION. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



To the north the Virginia Valley and Ridge region goes beyond the 

 Maryland-Virginia State line. Its eastern boundary is defined by 

 the western base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Its south- 

 ern boundary is the Tennessee-Virginia State line. It is bounded on 

 the west successively by Stone Mountain, Powell Mountain, Stone 

 Ridge, Back Allegheny Mountain, Cheat Mountain, and Allegheny 

 Front. Only a part of this region is located within the area con- 

 sidered in this bulletin, yet that part is one of the most important 

 pomological divisions of the area. 



Long parallel ridges similar to those in the East Tennessee Valley 

 region are characteristic of this region also, though the ridges are 



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Fig. 3. — A typical 4-year-old Elberta peach orchard at Sale Creek, Tenn., on one of the 

 ridges of the East Tennessee Valley region. 



usually higher and are called mountain ridges. Some of these moun- 

 tain ridges rise to an altitude of more than 3,500 feet, while the 

 summits of many are from 500 to 1,000 feet above the valleys below 

 them. 



There are many soil types in this region, the importance of which 

 in their relation to orchard income may be gathered from Table 5, 

 taken from a bulletin of the West Virginia Experiment Station (3). 

 The records in this table were obtained in 1912 and 1913 in Berkeley 

 County, one of the principal fruit-growing counties in this region. 



The data in Table 5 show that somewhat more profitable results 

 are found, on the average, from those orchards growing on the 

 Apple Pie Ridge soils. However, many orchards that are well 

 cared for on the limestone soils are as profitable as those on Apple 

 Pie Ridge soils. The red-shale lands give the next highest returns; 

 these are followed by the yellow shales, while the lowest returns are 



