Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-09-27
WE ARE IN THE
APPLE ZONE
Worlds Area is Limited
and the Crop Will AL
ways be Profit
able, if Good.

of Commerce this month, spoke on
apple growing and its possibilities
IN the Pacific Northwest. He said,
in part, as reported by the Portland
papers:
"The question may be asked:
Is there not great danger that the
apple, like the orange, may, by
overproduction, become a losing
proposition to the grower? This
is very pertinent question. | do
not believe it at all probable that
there will be an overproduction of
good, first-class winter apples. OF
course, it will not pay to raise
poor apples any more than it would
to raise poor oranges. The market
gets the best oranges that the grow
er ca produce. In the future that
may be the case with the apple.
The product is going to be better
because the apple-grower is learn
ing how to guard against diseased
trees and to keep the fruit free from
pests that will mar the fruit. They
are learning, in fact have learned,
that the apple orchard should be
kept clean, should be cultivated
and given every possible care.
Where the orchard can be irrigated
the supply of moisture is 50 regulat-
ed that the trees will get as much
as, and no more moisture than, is
necessary to produce the best re-
suits. The trees in the future will
not be allowed to overproduce and
thereby exhaust their vitality and
produce an inferior apple. The
soil will be watched with intelli-
gent care and the necessary ele-
ments artificially supplied to keep
the orchard to the highest ef-
ficiency.
THE apple not many years ago
was poured into barrels or shoveled
into wagons and handled as corn
was handled. At the same time
the oranges we ate came wrapped
in tissue paper and were carefully
packed in we'll ventilated boxes.
The apple of the future is going to
be handled as the orange has been
and is, for the priceit will bring
will justify this care. There will
always be a demand for the apple
produced and handled as it will be
in the future.
''But my principal reason for
SAYING there will never be an over
production of the winter apple is
the comparatively narrow area in
which this fruit can be profitably
grown. That zone around the earth
lying between the 10th and 50th
parallels of north latitude takes in
practically all the winter apple ter
ritory of the world. l am not I'M
mindful that isothermal lines are
not straight. There may be few
places where the winter apple will
hang over these latitudinal lines.
In the main, however, the lines
above drawn define the limits of
winter apple territory.
This zone takes in the whole of
Oregon, Washington and Idaho. 1t
must be borne in mind, too, that
in this winter apple zone it is only
in favored spots where the winter
apple can be grown to advantage.
These places are gradually being
discovered and will be planted in
orchards that will be cultivated and
cared for as the orange orchards
have been. The European territory
lying in this zone produces very
few apples, and in Asia, as mer-
charitable commodity, that fruit is
scarcely known, as l am reliably
informed. On this continent, east
of the Rocky mountains few places
there are where the apple orchard
cuts any commercial figure. In
lower Canada, northern New York
and western Ohio and a fraction
of Michigan lying along the east
side of Lake Michigan, in very mar
row limits and Kansas and Colora-
do, not the best, but fair apples are
raised.
THE best results can be had
only where the crop is supplied
by a sufficiency of moisture at
the proper time during the grow
ing season. This is possible where
NATURES precipitation is supple
mented by artificial aid in some
way or other In the Pacific North
west there are favored valleys
where all the conditions unite to
produce the finest apples that can
and will be grown with intelligent
cultivation. Nowhere else on this
continent do such favorable condi-
tions exist In these places will,
in a few years, be the highest
priced lands in this country, because