232 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
aggregating nearly 275,000 trees. This plantation at present constitutes the 
greater part of the commercial peach interest of the State. A third fruit sec- 
tion, or really a fourth considering its distinctive character, lies in the south- 
ern tier of counties bordering old Virginia, along the extreme southern por- 
tion of the State, and including lands tributary to the Blue Stone, Greenbrier 
and New rivers. Commercial orcharding will for some time be at disad- 
vantage in this last named region, because of a lack of railroad facilities, ex- 
cept along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio which passes across it. 
Soil— The lands upon which the orchards of the Ohio Valley are growing, 
are chiefly of two sorts. First, a sedimentary clay upon the hill tops and hill- 
sides, and second, alluvial sandy deposits on the bottom lands. The earlier 
orchard planting was confined to the hillsides, but during later years the 
planting has extended to the bottom lands, where it is now most extensive, 
notwithstanding that bottom laud orchards require more attention in regard 
to fertilizers and show evidence of being shorter lived than those on the 
hillsides. 
Through the Eastern Pan Handle the apple and peach soils are composed 
chiefly of gravel, the result of the breaking down of shale, mixed with clay, 
from a decomposition of the same shale with a small per cent of sand. As 
regards the price of land suitable for orchard purposes, it varies with the 
character of the land. Brush land, which when cleaned will produce good 
orchards, can be had at from eight 'to fifteen dollars per acre, it costing 
twelve to fifteen dollars per acre to clear such land. Cleared land ranges in 
price from fifteen to sixty dollars per acre; while lands upon which orchards 
are growing is hard to buy and is held at from seventy-five to two hundred 
and fifty dollars per acre. 
Varieties— Sorts vary with the character of the country; in fact, some are 
exceedingly local, while others are general in their distribution. The Willow 
Twig furnishes 90 per cent of all commercial fruit grown in the Northern 
Pan Handle section, while ten miles out of that belt it is a failure. The Ben 
Davis is second, while the Rome Beauty and Bentley Sweet are both impor- 
tant commercial sorts. In the eastern Pan Handle the York Imperial out- 
shines all others, the Rome Beauty and Willow Twig being little known and 
very sparingly grown in the region. W r hile the Ben Davis is here a second to 
the York Imperial, Yellow Newton, (. Albemarle Pippin ) and such new sorts as 
Northwestern Greening and Shackleford rank well. 
List of varieties (Northern Pan Handle).— Willow Twig**, Ben Davis**, 
Bentley Siceet*, Rome Beauty*. Southern Ohio River Region— Rome 
Beauty**, Ben Davis**. Eastern Pan Handle— York Imperial**, Ben Davis**, 
Shackleford*, Northwestern Greening*, Yellow Newtown**. 
Cultivation — The cultivation of orchards is largely governed by the charac- 
ter of the land upon which they are located. In the Northern Pan Handle 
section nearly all hill orchards are kept in grass. Sometimes this is cut for 
hay, but oftener is pastured by hogs or sheep; while the lowland orchards 
may be cultivated in the ordinary farm crops, such as corn, oats, potatoes 
or melons. In the eastern section, clean culture, with buckwheat or rye as a 
cover crop, is the rule. All the peach orchards are given clean culture, fol- 
lowed by early sown rye where the crop can be harvested in time, and late 
sown rye upon the later sorts. 
Commercial fertilizers are very generally used upon the peach orchards, 
while little attention has been paid to the use of fertilizers in the apple 
