TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION. 
75 
situations for tlie culture of red apples, such as York Imperial, Winesap, Ben 
Davis, or its near relative Gano. 
Below these counties above mentioned, the peculiar foothill formation of 
the Blue Ridge becomes a marked characteristic of the landscape and the soils 
of the lower levels of the Piedmont belt take on the red clay characteristic 
above mentioned. This red clay land is interspersed with gravelly, sandy 
land and on the upper slopes of the foothills wherever the granitic outcrop 
known as epidotic rocks appears above the shale, the soil takes on the black, 
brownish, loamy character which constitutes the particular mark of a natural 
"‘pippin” soil. All the red lands mentioned and their various intergrades with' 
oilier soils, where rich enough and rightly situated, will produce the same 
character of red apples mentioned above. But the black and brownish loams 
extending up the foot-hills and mountain sides, often as high as or even 
above the perennial springs, comprise the apple lands of the best value. 
While no positive definition of this soil can be made which will always 
apply and mark the district at once as “pippin” soil, yet an invariable charac- 
teristic of this soil is that it shows the broken, greenish rocks of granitic 
derivation which appear to be a necessary element in the make up of a natural 
“pippin” soil. 
The areas of “pippin” soils are seldom if ever of large extent in one con- 
tiguous body, but are found more frequently winding up the hollows or 
exposed on the somewhat even slopes of the foothills and the sides of the 
main mountain chain. These lands are almost always moist and produce a 
luxuriant growth of poplar, oak and other common timbers. 
There is no prime pippin land, so far as I am aware, above the county of 
Rappahannock and the largest bodies of this land are found in the counties 
of Albemarle, Nelson and Amherst, extending into Bedford and a further 
belt appears again in the county of Franklin extending into Patrick. No 
good pippins are grown as far down from the mountains as Charlottesville, 
nor have I ever seen any pippin land extending out to the line of the Southern 
Railway. 
It is chiefly in these narrow strips just described that the famous orchards 
of Virginia are situated and wherever the orchardists in the past have planted 
on this most desirable land and the orchards have been cared for, the owners 
are now reaping a sure profit. There are instances where forty acres of 
such land have produced crops of ten and twelve thousand dollars worth 
of fruit; but these phenomenal successes are much more widely published 
than the many failures or more moderate successes occurring throughout 
the orchard belt of this section. Nothing could be more ill advised than 
for me or anyone else to say that this entire belt designated as the Pied- 
mont will produce choice apples. It is in fact a critical matter and requires 
careful observation to be able to designate the lands on which one can hope 
to achieve the best success. 
I advise all interested purchasers or planters to observe very carefully 
indeed the results obtained by those living in the district where they are 
contemplating purchasing or planting orchards *and to be largely guided by 
the facts observed. 
THE BLUE RIDGE SECTION. 
This district comprises in its major part the narrow ridge of' the higher 
portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is in the main a rather barren 
