Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1901-08-17
Of West Virginia Described By
Prof. Corbett.
BERKELEYS GREAT FUTURE.
Nearly 5000 Acres Of Apple Orchards and
1900 Of Peach Trees in the County
The immense Revenue Derived
Therefrom.

ing industry In West virginia imam
any other nersen in the State writes :;
Few people outside the immediate
counties have any conception OF the
intensity or magnitude Of this IN
dustry in our state The State has at
present two developed orchard areas
one situated in the northern counties
bordering the Ohio river. and the
-othre in that line of counties along
the Potomac from the crest of the
Allegheny mountain eastward.
In the north AMI west Hancock
county leads them all in the aggregate
output Here we find orchards rang
ing from a few hundred trees TO the
unusual number of IS, 0o0sunder sim
gle management. Several orchards
contain upwards Of 4, 600 trees, while
the second largest contains not far
from 1900 bearing trees. AS early
as 1896 the crop of thls now famous
region reached the enormous number
of 100, 600 barrels--3O0 009 bushels.
This crop was borne by land area
not exceeding 2 900 acres.
The soil. climate ami skill of the
grower sseem TO be the best possible
for the development of commercial
apple industry. So far the orchards
in Hancock county have been remark
ably free from insectFpestssan d.fungus
disease. During the fall of 1899. how
ever, the bitter rot made its appear
ance upon the Bently Sweet in few
orchards. Fortunately ho8ever, the
disease has so far confined its attacks
to this one variety.
The product of this orchard area is
of very considerable value but the
investment in soil, trees and store
houses is many times the value of
single crop. No less than six large
storage warehouses have been provid-
ed for the retention of the products
OF these orchards. The smallest of
these houses has capacity of 2, 800
barrels, while the largest holds 80, 600.
The Hancock county region is by
no means the only developed orchard
region of the State Berkeley and jeff
erson county growers pride them
selves on having some of the most
profitable orchards i'll the Eastern
United States. The famous orchard
of John Miller needs no further COM
ment than mere mention. The exam
ple OF Mr.. W. $. Miller and few
other successful growers on "Ap-
plepie Ridge, which is in realty
part of the famous Alberarle Pip
pm region of Virginia stimulated
many others to follow their example
and now the county of Berkeley con
tains not far from 5000 acres of apple
orchard and probably /, 500 of peach
trees. These are in the main Young
orchards so that while the annual
product OF the county az present is
only 90. 600, or 60. 600 barrels, yet in
1899 alone over 5000, 600 came into the
county as a result of the industry
The time is not far distant when the
output will exceed that OF the Han
cock county REGION. If the growers of
these { wo regions were TO c ONE into
closer contact each would be mutual
ly benefited. The Hancock county
growers would find valuable sugges
lions in the cultural methods of Ber-
kelley county, while the harvesting
and marketing methods OF the Han
cock county orchardists would in
crease the rpofit on the Berkeley coun-
ty product 10 per cent.
The fruit products of our State are
at once suggestive and encouraging
when viewed from a commercial
stand point. The apple output is
remarkable considering the small
area devoted TO it, The crops are
regular, large, made up of long
keeping varieties of high quality.
With orchards of this character in
the State, the wonder is that the
area devoted to this industry is so
limited.
In fruit growing the skill and taste
displlved by the shipper counts for
mo e III making a market for his
product than in any other branch OF
agriculture Uniform, neat and APP.
prop late shipping cases always add to
the value of the product and slovenly
packages invariably detract from the
ale of an otherwise high grade com
modify. In our own State no one fac
tor has had M pre- to do with the tardy
growth of the fruit business than the
ndiscriminate, planting of great
many varieties. The lists which are
made part of this report are the best
proof of this statement The infu-
ence # this style of planting has been
to retard commercial development by
catering to home demand. This was