Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
from areas south of the Alps and over the Channel from France to England,
but the distances involved and the bulks transported were limited.
In
the railway from Bozen (Bolzano) in what is now Italy was opened
across the Alps, connecting the South Tyrol with many populous cities and
towns in central Europe (Oberhofer,
). Subsequently there was a major
increase in apple exports from what is now the Alto Adige region of northern
Italy and by far the greater proportion of fruit grown there is now exported,
especially to Germany and Austria.
Apple growing in the United States followed the extension of settlement
westwards. Climatic conditions differed markedly from those in Great Britain
and there was much practical trial and error to select appropriate cultivars.
The native crab apples were largely discounted even as a source of breed-
ing material and large numbers of seedlings were imported, especially for
the production of cider. As populations moved into areas with colder winters
many northern European cultivars were introduced and by
more than
a thousand cultivars were listed. Production in the eastern and mid-western
states of the USA centred on New York, Michigan and the Shenandoah Valley
area of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia, all within easy reach of
major markets. Apple planting in Washington State, remote from large cen-
tres of population, began early in the nineteenth century primarily to supply
apples for the settlers themselves. Commercial orchards were planted exten-
sively near Yakima by the
). Most of the
plantings were along the banks of the Columbia River and its major tribu-
taries, the Okanagan, Snake, Wenatchee and Yakima rivers. Steamboats on
the Columbia were a major means of freight, rail service became available
from Wenatchee town in
s (Marshall and Steigmeyer,
. Further
extension of the railway and heavy promotion of apple planting led to a rapid
increase in production and by
and car-lot shipping started in
Washington had become the leading state
for apple production in the USA. Expansion continued and in the
s there
were extensive new plantings on virgin land in the central Columbia River
Basin. In
Washington State produced
.
million tons of apples out
of a total production in the USA of
%of
the US total. It should be noted that this production is totally dependent on
irrigation, average annual rainfall in Wenatchee and Yakima being only
.
million tons, i.e. more than
and
). The industry is dependent on mar-
kets outside the state, international exports rising to
mm respectively (Elfving,
% of total shipments
by
. Two thirds of the production is of the cv. 'Red Delicious', followed
by 'Golden Delicious', 'Granny Smith', 'Gala' and 'Fuji'.
The apple industries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa under-
went major expansion in the early twentieth century to take advantage of the
