FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 17 



almost impossible to spray these trees with lime and sulphur and not 

 touch the peach trees, and it is too strong for peach trees. 



A Member: Would not peach trees be better in there than apples 

 even if you did touch a leaf occasionally? 

 Mr. Case : It is possible. 



A Member: What would be the objection to peaches if the crop is 

 larger? 



Mr. Fralick: What is your objection? 



Mr. Case: I believe that an apple tree is like an animal in this 

 respect; that during the months of incubation it must have the best of 

 care; that is, during the blooming period, which are the months of 

 April, May and June, while the tree is forming its blossoms — ^getting 

 ready to form the buds — that is the critical time for that tree, and dur- 

 ing that time it must have plenty of moisture and plenty of good feed 

 that its roots can get hold of to support that tree during that time. (Does 

 not believe the land should be used for other things at the expense of 

 your fruit/) We commenced seeding down in August. We have got 

 way back to June 10th when we start picking these apples orchards, and 

 that varies a little. We depend entirely on the time we shall seed by 

 the color of the foliage. 



Mr. Fralick: What time do you commence picking? 

 Mr. Case: June 10th or 15th. 



A Member: Isn't it as desirous to have a big, healthy growing tree 

 as it is to have the fruit? If you don't get your tree large enough to 

 bear fruit early are you not ahead? 



Mr, Case: I think that tree is like an animal. If you let a heifer 

 have a calf at two years old and another at three and at four by that 

 time you have a good cow. If you don't let a heifer have a calf until she 

 is three years old you have turned these elements into making flesh. 

 It is the same with an apple orchard. You want to get the fruit bear- 

 ing early, and we have proved it very successfully. 



A Member: What do you estimate is the profit on an apple orchard 

 at maturity? 



Mr. Case : Our Commissioner of Agriculture, who is in Iowa now, 

 came after me a year ago last winter to give a paper before the New 

 York Agricultural Association, of which he was then President. I think 

 I started with 1906. Now here are the gross receipts of 1906; here are 

 the expenses of 1906, and here is the net of 1906, and the same with 

 1907 and 1908 and for six years. What he wanted me to show were the 

 gross receipts, the expenses and the net of a period of years, claiming 

 I was the only man in the state that could do it. I started keeping 

 books double entry, and as I look back to it now that very fact is what 

 started my turning grain growing into fruit growing, I have a system 

 of cards from which I can tell what is done every day; who has worked 

 for me for something like fifteen or sixteen years, etc. Now you get at 

 the end of six years and you have the net profit for the six years. Divide 

 that by six years and it gives you the average net per year. We divide 

 that by the number of acres and it gives you the average net per acre 

 per year. That is what I gave him for the different fruits — apples, 

 peaches, plums, grapes and cherries. I found that from fl.OO to |1.25 

 was what it cost me to put a barrel of apples on the car. 

 A Member: Does that include the package? 



Mr, Case: Yes, to put them on board cars. Now Mr. Bassett asked 

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