COMMERCIAL SIDE OF FRUIT GROWING IN UNITED STATES. 147 



something over 100,000 acres of Apple orchards in the five counties 

 touching Lake Ontario in New York State. The lake tempers and 

 modifies the climatic conditions for several miles inland. Peaches yield 

 much more regularly along the shore of the lake than elsewhere. Away 

 from the influence of the lake, the fruit-buds are often killed by the 

 winter. This region is now one of the most famous Apple districts in 

 the United States. It has conditions not unlike those which produce the 

 Gravenstein Apples of Nova Scotia. In recent years the increase in the 

 number of orchards has trended westward, following more or less directly 

 the tide of immigration. The largest orchard enterprises in the world — at 

 least Americans are fond of claiming them as such— are to be found in the 

 hilly regions of Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado. In these regions fruit- 

 growers plant and care for their trees on the principle of ' a short life and 

 a merry one.' At least the trees are short-lived as compared with 



Baldwin Apple Trees, Monroe County, New York. 



Eastern standards. They bear early and heavily, and die comparatively 

 young. In New York State an Apple tree has reached its maximum powers 

 as a producer at the age of forty-five years, but should live, with reasonable 

 care, a hundred years longer. In the Ozarks of Missouri the tree is 

 middle-aged at twenty, and decrepit at thirty ; but it commenced bearing 

 early. 



However, this is a digression. What I was going to say was that 

 recently a great exploitation of certain regions in the Southern States 

 had occurred. More than three millions of Peach trees were planted in 

 central Georgia last fall, and during the past spring (1904 and 1905). 

 Growers have suddenly, as it were, discovered the adaptability of the 

 Peach to this region. Certain districts in South Carolina have been 

 found where Peaches do surpassingly well. In Texas — that great State 

 900 miles long by 600 broad — (she is quite out of the Apple zone) blocks 



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