12 BULLETIN 1416, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
suited to local conditions. Distance to market is a handicap to be 
successfully offset only by excellence in other ways. Attractive- 
ness as a place of residence has contributed to the growth of some 
orchard sections. Prevailing intelligence and community spirit of 
erowers has sometimes led to high development of whatever advan- 
tages existed. 
No region has all conditions favorable and most of them have 
serious drawbacks. The Middle West has had some success without 
much natural frost protection because of fertile, easily worked soil, 
productive varieties, and good local markets. Parts of New England, 
eastern New York, and southern Ohio have rather inferior or rough 
land and severe, irregular climate, but possess the best of local mark- 
ets. The Piedmont section of the South has much poor, hilly soil 
and is not very accessible to the great markets but has favorable 
climate and ample labor supply. The Potomac-Shenandoah-Cum- 
berland region has only a-fair degree of natural frost protection and 
accessibility, but possesses good soil and a climate adapted to pro- 
duction of choice varieties, and has large areas suitable for extensive 
orchard enterprises. 
Northern apple regions are handicapped by a shorter growing 
season, winterkill, spring frost, late freezing, windstorms, and high 
cost of labor. Southern regions suffer from spring frost, hail injury, 
bitter rot, rust, field mice, and poor roads. The Middle West has 
much frost injury and blister Red: 
GENERAL FEATURES OF COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING 
The prevailing features of successful orcharding common to the 
prominent apple regions may be summed up briefly as follows: 
Fairly level, fertile, loamy, well-drained soil. 
Frost-protected, convenient location in a successful apple district. 
Orchards of 10 acres or more and product handled as a specialty. 
Trees 35 feet apart, more or less, according to soil, climate, and variety. 
Well-known, locally tested, commercial varieties. 
Cultivation with intercrops and in later years with annual cover crops. 
Fertilizing according to needs of soil. . 
Thorough, timely spraying. 
. First-class equipment. 
10. Judicious selection of orchard machinery. 
11. More or less thinning of the fruit. 
12. An efficient selling policy based on best available information, careful 
harvesting and handling. 
13. A reputation established by a well-graded, attractive, reliable pack, 
14. Good packages. 
15. Experienced orchard help. 
16. Painstaking personal supervision of operations. 
eM ae) Sl 
HARVESTING 
SEASONS IN THE BARREL REGION 
The apple harvest extends from June to November. Varieties 
are commonly classed according to the principal market season. 
Early varieties are gathered mostly in July and August, fall kinds in 
August and September, and winter apples, which constitute two- 
thirds of the commercial crop, in September and October. Picking 
time for the same variety varies about two weeks between Virginia 
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