West Virginia University's Kearneysville Tree Fruit Research and Education Center is located in Jefferson County on Route 9, just west of Kearneysville, about halfway between Charles Town and Martinsburg. The Fruit Center was established in 1930 and is administered by the Division of Plant and Soil Science in the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences. Faculty at the Center usually have joint appointments in the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences and the West Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. It is one of nine farms and forests of the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The Center includes 158 acres of mixed tree fruit plantings and corn rotation, a modern laboratory and classroom building, a historic farm house, a greenhouse, graduate student housing, and various equipment buildings. Orchard plantings on the site include a large and diverse display of various apple trellis systems that were established in 1979 and the early 1980's. Most of the site is devoted to research plantings, with numerous orchard blocks established specifically for investigations in the areas of entomology and plant pathology.

The mission of the Fruit Center is to serve the commercial tree fruit industry of West Virginia, of which over 95% is located in the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson, Hampshire, and Morgan. This is currently accomplished by conducting research in entomology and plant pathology at the Fruit Center and in grower orchards, and by providing educational programs for fruit growers. Educational programs consist of fruit schools, grower meetings, tours, publications (including a biweekly newsletter), diagnostic services, and this web site. Tours of the Fruit Center are provided in conjunction with the Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival, and at other times by appointment.