14 



ORCHAED FEUITS IN VIRGINIA AND OTHER STATES. 



In these investigations acknowledgment is due and gladly made of 

 the assistance which the writer has received from numerous sources. 

 The fruit growers of the regions under consideration have granted him 

 the freedom of their orchards without restraint for the making of per- 

 sonal observations, and they have also given freely the results of their 

 experience. In the identification of varieties, by helpful suggestions, 

 and in many other ways the assistance of his associates in office has 

 been invaluable. 



The data for the following deductions have been obtained in various 

 ways, but mainly by means of careful observations and studies of the 

 varieties and their environments through personal inspection of the 

 orchards, these studies being supplemented by the results of the expe- 

 rience and impressions of the growers as learned from them in inter- 

 views and by correspondence. The ideal method of investigating the 

 adaptability of a variety is to study it from time to time during its 

 development throughout the entire season, but as only a single inspec- 

 tion each year is practicable in most cases, the examination is made as 

 nearly as possible when the fruit is mature, but before it has been 

 harvested. The immediate local conditions under which the fruit has 

 developed can then be best determined, and also their effect upon the 

 varieties. 



THE PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE PIEDMONT 

 AND BLUE RIDGE REGIONS. 



To say that a variety of fruit succeeds in any particular place or 

 seems to be poorly adapted, as the case may be, signifies little or noth- 

 ing in regard to the real merits of the variety in extending or develop- 

 ing the fruit industry, unless the conditions under which the variety 

 is grown are also known. Its reported behavior may be the result of 

 conditions which are entirely within the control of man and not neces- 

 sarily subject to any natural features of the location where it is grown. 

 On the other hand, the variety in question may be considered for 

 planting in some other section where the conditions are similar to the 

 location where it has produced known results. It then becomes of 

 fundamental importance to be able to forecast, by a comparison of 

 conditions and their influence upon the variety, what its value is 

 likely to be for the purpose desired in the second locality. Hence, the 

 behavior of a variety must be interpreted in terms of the conditions 

 under which it is grown in order that its behavior shall have definite 

 significance. It is therefore necessary to describe in considerable 

 detail the more important conditions which exist in the regions under 

 discussion, that the varietal notes which occur on later pages may have 

 the widest possible application. 



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