DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 265 



finally fall. What is true with the corn holds with all crops. 

 The skips constitute the costly items in cropping for they pull 

 directly on net profits. 



This association aims at seed improvement and has accom- 

 plished much, yet there is an open field just ahead, to be occu- 

 pied sometime by live wires, ready to serve a live industry. 

 Good seed is the basis of all prosperity in cropping and he who 

 attempts a ten acre farm must guard closely his seed supply 

 in every case. The average yield of the apple trees of Maine, 

 of bearing age, is not more than one-half barrel yearly. When 

 the average of ten years is struck, lean years and fat, poor 

 trees and good, one is startled at the low yield per tree. Some- 

 thing is wrong somewhere and, because of this yearly income, 

 is greatly reduced. It costs me 50 cents per tree, yearly, to 

 prune, dig borers, fertilize, mulch and spray three times. It 

 costs 20 cents per barrel to pick, with an average of one barrel 

 to the tree. Less than that increases cost rapidly. It costs one 

 and one-half cent to get barrels from cooper shop to orchard, 

 2,6 cents for barrel, two cents to move from orchard to stor- 

 age barn, three cents for storage 30 days and two cents to haul 

 to station for shipping. Here we have $1.14^ per barrel, cash 

 outlay. Add to this interest on tree, taxes, insurance and de- 

 preciation on buildings and orchard, as well as implements, 

 and one faces a cost, real, tangible, not to be avoided, which 

 may well startle. It is time for us to get busy and find the 

 highway to larger production. Somebody's theory is not worth 

 the paper on which it is printed. The cold facts alone come 

 out of personal experience. 



Central Maine farmers are peculiarly adapted to fruit grow- 

 ing but of what avail is an orchard on a ten-acre farm if pro- 

 duction is to be allowed to hold at this low level? It will so 

 continue until men realize better what is involved in proper 

 care and protection, as well as feeding of the trees, and ap- 

 proach a careful consideration of the problem of selection of 

 varieties to location. On any ten acre farm, carrying natural 

 air and water drainage, 200 apple trees may well be set, pro- 

 vided the owner is a lover of trees and is ready to do his part 

 faithfully. The great bulk should be of the best variety grown 

 in the neighborhood. Give the tree agent a wide berth. Ex- 



