Apple Culture in Wayne County, N. Y. 
A LEADER IN FRUIT GROWING.—According 
to the fourteenth census of the United States. 
Wayne County, New York, is the leading county of 
the State in the production of apples and also of 
cherries. Thinking that a survey of the apple pro¬ 
duction and the steps that brought nboul its com¬ 
manding position might be of interest to the growers 
themselves, as well as the orchard ists outside the 
district, the Wayne County Farm Bureau made an 
apple orchard survey, omitting all orchards of less 
than four acres in the computations. The findings 
of this survey are especially significant front the 
fact that the Federal census gives a total of 906.938 
bearing apple trees in the county, or 100,000 more 
than in any other county. 
FIGURES OF PRODUCTION. — Approximately 
250 growers with some 500 blocks of trees were 
included in the survey, representing: over 125,000 
trees, made up of 76 varieties, yielding during the 
years 1910, 1917 and 1918 a total of 1.024,778 bushels 
of apples. In this connection it should be stated 
survey the 14 most important varieties are listed in 
their order: Baldwin, 45,096; Rhode Island Green¬ 
ing, 29.484; Ben Davis. 18,369; Wealthy, 6.112; 
MelntOsh, 4,284; Hubbardston, 3,524; Northern Spy. 
2,501; Duchess, 2.032; Twenty Ounce, 1.9s7; Tomp¬ 
kins* King. 1.514; Gano, 1.47S; Stark, 1.447; Wage- 
lier, 1.162; Northwestern Greening, 926. The re¬ 
maining five per cent is made up of 62 varieties of 
less importance. The survey indicates that In the 
plantings of tin* past 10 years often varieties such 
as McIntosh, Duchess, Wealthy and Stark are taking 
some of the space that in former plantings was 
largely given to Baldwin, R. I. Greening and Ben 
Davis. It is still true that more Baldwins were 
planted between 1909 and 1920 than any other 
variety. The Baldwin was followed by II. I. Green¬ 
ing and Ben Davis. 
SOD vs. CULTIVATION IN PRODUCTION—In 
comparing the production of cultivated orchards and 
those in sod, those which were cropped were not 
considered. As trees under 10 years of age produced 
fact that there were no trees over 35 years old in 
the Ben Davis blocks, and possibly because of the 
habit of growth of the variety more pruning of the 
lower limbs may have been practiced to facilitate 
cultivation close to the trees. Since pruning seems 
to influence the hearing of the trees, a comparison 
was made of those pruned to the open center type 
and those allowed to assume more or less the natural 
form. Tu order co produce an open center tree much 
more pruning is required than for the natural form. 
It was found that trees under cultivation, as well 
as those in sod, usually yielded considerably larger 
crops when allowed to assume the more or less 
natural form than when pruned to the open center. 
Trees pruned to the natural form came into bearing 
earlier than those pruned to the open center form. 
YIELDS,—Baldwin shows the highest return per 
tree between the ages of 30 and 39 years. From this 
point the return per tree diminishes in both sod and 
cultivated trees, until the group 70 and over has 
been reached. Here the return per tree is higher. 
An Old Tompkins King Orchard i)i Xcic York. Fig. 86 
that of this number 44.896, or 37 per cent, were 10 
years and less of age. and consequently were bearing 
little fruit. A little over half of the trees were 
planted from 1900 to 1920, and 16 per cent were 
planted between 1890 and 1900. For the section 
included within the survey orchard plantings are 
keeping pace with the disappearance of old trees. 
It was found from the survey that the greatest 
production for all varieties comes from trees 40 
to -19 years old. The average yield for trees coming 
in this group for the period of three years was 17.19 
bushels per tree. When the trees reached the age 
cf 50 lo 59 years the yield was 15.59 bushels per 
tree. When the age was 30 to 39 years the yield 
was 14.64 bushels per tree. When the age was 20 
to 29 years the yield was 14.05 bushels per tree; 60 
to 69 years, 11.61 bushels per tree; over 70 years of 
age. 15.74 bushels per tree: 11 to 19 years; 7.82 
bushels. In explanation of the seeming big differ¬ 
ence between the old and young trees it may be said 
that many old orchards in the hands of experienced 
growers were visited, whereas some of the young 
orchards showed lack of expert care as in the older 
blocks. 
VARIETIES—Of 120.563 trees represented in the 
very little, they were not included. The survey 
shows that about half the trees were cultivated and 
about half in sod. It was found that for all varieties 
included in the survey, including all ages from 11 
years to over 7o. for the three-year period, the yield 
per tree in the cultivated orchards was slightly more 
than one bushel greater than for trees in the sod. 
For the 10-year period, including trees from It to 
19 years old, it was found that the production in 
sod was four bushels greater per tree for the same 
three years. This is very likely due to the pruning 
given the cultivated trees. It is probable that in 
order to he able to cultivate close to the trees severe 
pruning away of the lower limbs had been practiced, 
while in sod orchards this would not be found neces¬ 
sary. If this supposition is true, comparative yields 
for the young trees in sod ami under cultivation are, 
as would be expected, due to the fact that severe 
pruning of young trees delays fruiting and reduces 
the yields. Baldwin trees in sod show a distinct 
decline in production after the nineteenth year when 
compared with cultivated trees. Rhode Island 
Greenings also showed a decline, but to a less de¬ 
gree. The Ben Davis gave better yields in sod than 
under cultivation. This may be partly due to the 
due to the average yield per tree, and not due to a 
greater price per bushel. Rhode Island gives 
results similar to those of Baldwin, excepting that 
the average price per bushel and consequent returns 
per tree is much lower in sod than Baldwin. Evi¬ 
dently Rhode Island is not suited to sod as far as 
the production of a good grade of fruit is concerned. 
Hubbardston. McIntosh, Northern Spy. Tompkins. 
Rhode Island. Wealthy and Twenty Ounce show the 
highest average returns per bushel. 
RETURNS FROM BEN DAVIS.—Ben Davis 
shows a higher average return in sod per tree, not 
only on account of the higher average yield, but also 
or. account of a higher price per bushel of fruit from 
trees in sod. This is due to a greater quantity of 
fruit from trees in sod being sold in a pack: Many 
growers in eastern Wayne County stated that Ben 
Davis was their best money-getter, and that it would 
give better returns than Baldwin or Rhode Island 
up to about tho twentieth year, when the two latter 
varieties wonkl surpass it. According to the data 
o f the survey, this statement is amply justified: but 
it would seem that Baldwin and Rhode Island do 
not normally surpass Bon Davis in average returns 
per tree until between the ages of 20 and 30 years 
