SECRETARY'S REPORT. 143 



"An estimate of the comparative returns from an acre of apples 

 and an acre of other crops must be mere guess work, for I have no 

 accurate data upon which to speak with certainty. If high, rocky- 

 side hills, such as are usually devoted to pasture, and often furnish 

 the best location for an enduring and productive orchard, are select- 

 ed, the returns from an acre in good bearing condition would equal 

 that from thirty acres in pasture. If good tillage land is taken and 

 kept in tillage, with a trifling addition of manure for the trees, 

 there would be but little diminution of the tilled crops during ten 

 years. It could not be expected that during the first seven years 

 on the tilled land and ten years on the pasture, the returns would 

 more than pay the cost of trees, planting and subsequent care. 

 For the following twenty or thii'ty years, I estimate the net returns 

 from an acre of orchard equal to that from ten in tillage or thirty 

 in pasture." 



Another, not many miles distant from the last, says : " Devote 

 an acre of land to apple trees, say one hundred, and for ten or fif- 

 teen years other crops could be cultivated on the same ground 

 without much hindrance from the trees, and for a period of twenty 

 or thirty years my opinion, is that ' other crops ' taken from the 

 land, if as ' well cared for ' as an orchard should be, will more 

 than pay for all extra manuring and trouble, so that, according to 

 this reasoning, I believe it safe to reckon the additional value of 

 an acre of apple trees to be the value of the fruit, deducting the 

 cost of gathering and marketing. I should estimate the income 

 for that period of time to be from three to five times more than 

 from other ordinary farm crops." 



One in Cumberland county, living near their best market (Port- 

 land), says: "To compare the product of an acre of apple trees 

 with the same amount of land in other crops, and receiving the 

 same labor, manure and care, will depend more upon the character 

 of the soil than locality in the State. Land that is well adapted to 

 corn will usually grow good apple orchards; but it is a waste of 

 labor and money to try to grow trees on land not suitably drained, 

 or on land naturally unfitted for trees. Five or six hundred dollars 

 is not more than a fair value for a well grown young orchard cov- 

 ering an acre of land. No other crop generally grown could re- 

 munerate the owner of land purchased at one-half, or perhaps one- 

 quarter of those prices. Market gardening, in advantageous 

 positions, would perhaps prove profitable at so large an outlay for 



