THE APPLE INDUSTRY IN FEEDEEICK COUNTY, VA. 



21 



Among those orchards of 50 acres or less 17 orchards in the yield 

 group of 40 barrels or less had an average yield of 31 barrels. These 

 17 orchards had 19 acres of interplanted crops, of which 80 per cent 

 was removed and 20 per cent left on the land. The other 14 orchards 

 in this size group, but yielding over 40 barrels per acre, had an average 

 yield of 57 barrels per acre. These 13 high-yielding orchards had 

 an average of 14 acres of interplanted crops in the orchard, only 58 

 per cent of which was removed. (See Table 22.) 



Among the large orchards those having a yield per acre of less than 

 40 barrels showed that 86 per cent of the interplanted crops had 

 been removed, whereas those with a yield in excess of 40 barrels per 

 acre showed that 44 per cent of the interplanted crops had been 

 removed. 



Fig. 3.— Corn interplanted in the orchard. This practice lowers the yield of apples 



Corn and hay were the principal crops planted in orchards for 

 removal, although wheat was sometimes interplanted for the same 

 purpose. The extent of intercropping with corn is shown by the 

 fact that only 3 of the 48 orchards were not interplanted with this 

 crop in some part of the orchard area during the five years (figs. 3 

 and 4). 



Sod culture, where the grass is left uncut for many years, is another 

 rather common method of soil management in the Shenandoah 

 Valley. A few of the 48 orchards employed this method of soil 

 management with excellent results. In fact, the orchard with the 

 largest yield per acre was under this system of soil management. A 

 better yield was obtained where the plant growth was used as a 

 mulch than where it was removed. Some of the orchards are on 

 rough land where *sod culture is the only feasible method of soil 

 management (fig. 5). 



