338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



profits. To the grain-grower the average loss by it is officially 

 estimated at ten per cent of his gross proceeds. The sacks alone 

 cost me six per cent this year on the gross proceeds of a thou- 

 sand bushels of the best brewing barley, sold at a price twenty- 

 five per cent higher than that realized by the average grower of 

 the common grades. How much I paid the warehouseman at 

 home, the one in San Francisco, the one in Liverpool, and the 

 brewer, each of whom handled it twice, for the extra work of the 

 sack system over the elevator system, I do not know. They may 

 have done it gratis, but I do not think so. At any rate, long after 

 the system is universally recognized to be a monstrous and un- 

 necessary burden, we shall be held to it by the same cause which 

 binds England to its crude passenger-coach and America to its 

 deadly hand-coupling and brake on its freight trains the neces- 

 sity of changing all at once and on so large a scale when the 

 change is made. 



But the burden on the almond-grower is trifling one per cent 

 for sacks in my case the product being so much more valuable 

 in proportion to bulk. The sack is altogether an advantage. It 

 saves the delicate shell, and furnishes a place for the brand of the 

 orchardist who is proud of his product and wishes to work up a 

 reputation for it, and also for another brand giving the name of 

 the variety contained in each sack. 



An important practical question confronting every prospective 

 orchardist is, How soon will my trees come into bearing and pay 

 their own expenses and interest on my investment ? In these 

 days of harnessed steam and chained lightning, young America 

 plants for himself and not for his children. Some old men who 

 have tried it a little have come to the conclusion that too much 

 planting for posterity is a mistaken kindness for which poster- 

 ity, lying in the shade, kicking up its heels and letting its facul- 

 ties rust for want of planting to do, returns no thanks. The al- 

 mond is an early bearer. At four years from the seed the orchard 

 of which I am the lessee yielded, at about average prices, about 

 eighty dollars per acre gross say sixty dollars net. This year at 

 six years old, prices considerably below the average, the gross pro- 

 ceeds will be about one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. 

 I do not think any other orchard yielded so much per tree, of the 

 same size; but, on the other hand, these trees are so wide apart 

 (twenty-eight feet) that there are only about half the usual num- 

 ber of trees on an acre. While the trees are small, this tells 

 against the yield per acre, and so in this respect this orchard is 

 probably only a fair example. It was not an exceptionally early 

 bearer. In a general way it may be said that an almond orchard 

 yields as quick returns as an average herd of beef steers, but not 

 as quick as a herd of heifers. And in the mean time the planter 



