and "general" farm types as well as the orchard farms has been made. 

 But this bulletin is devoted principally to presenting a picture of the 

 farm organization and the costs of production as found on the orchard 

 type of farm, of which there were 48. The data have been analyzed 

 with a view to determining the most effective organization from the 

 standpoint of lowering costs and increasing the net return for the 

 orchard farm. 



The change from other types of farming to orcharding is often 

 materially influenced by the length of time necessary to develop 

 bearing orchards, by the early experience and training of the farmers 

 themselves, by their financial ability, or by general cycles in produc- 

 tion and price of apples. Therefore problems of organization are 

 more clearly outlined if the history of the development of the orchard 

 industry in this region is reviewed briefly before analysis is attempted. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE APPLE INDUSTRY IN FREDERICK COUNTY 



Most of the first settlers in this locality came in the eighteenth 

 century, chiefly from New York, Pennsylvania, and eastern Virginia, 

 and it is the descendants of these early settlers who form the largest 

 number of the growers to-day. The first settlers brought to this 

 section the type of agriculture to which they had become accustomed, 

 and indications of that type have persisted through the many gen- 

 erations. From an economic standpoint this factor has significance, 

 for customs of long standing often modify the rate of progress in new 

 developments (fig. 2). 



The early type of farming in this section of the valley was such 

 that each farm was largely self-sufficient, with a surplus of wheat 

 which could be exchanged for those necessities not produced in the 

 community. When this region was settled, and for a century after- 

 wards, there were no great wheat regions in the United States and 

 Canada. The early settlers here found the soil and climate particu- 

 larly adapted to wheat growing, and with the development of the 

 country wheat became the outstanding cash crop of this valley. 



With the opening of vast areas of relatively cheap land west of 

 the Mississippi River, peculiarly fitted to wheat production, these 

 Virginia farmers were brought gradually into keen competition with 

 outside wheat growers. Confronted with this condition and realiz- 

 ing that there was an increasing city population near home, the 

 farmers of Frederick County gradually built up their present apple 

 industry. It is said that the first grower who made orcharding his 

 main enterprise was subjected to much ridicule. In time the wisdom 

 of the undertaking was apparent to many other enterprising farmers 

 of Frederick County and the number of plantings increased rapidly. 



Up to the present time Frederick County has shown a greater 

 increase in number of trees planted than any other county in Vir- 

 ginia. 'In Table 1 are the number of bearing trees in the State of 

 Virginia and in Frederick County. Although there were about the 

 same number of trees of bearing age in the entire State in 1924 as 

 in 1899, during the same period the number of bearing trees in Fred- 

 erick County had increased from 192,888 to 645,584, an increase of 

 about 235 per cent. . Frederick County in 1924 had approximately 

 8 per cent of the total number of bearing trees and about 10 per cent 

 of the apple production of the State. 



