STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 207 



week or ten days, according to the heat of the sun, your prunes will be 

 dried enough to put them loose in any kind of boxes holding lifty or 

 seventy-five pounds. The trays can be made very chcai)ly (about 

 ten cents each) with four sawed redwood shakes three feet long, 

 nailed on a very primitive frame, by anybody who ever used a saw 

 and hammer. 



Now, when your prunes are all dried, and you want to give them 

 the finishing gloss for the market, do as follows: Fill your kettle 

 again with water, but this time no lye is wanted, and when tlui water 

 is boiling steep your prunes in it with your wire basket for about a 

 minute, till every prune is made quite hot, then expose them to the 

 sun for that day, and the next morning you can pack them in boxes 

 or sacks, as you prefer. This last steeping will make your i)rnnes 

 very clear and gloss}^ and will kill every insect and destroy their 

 eggs effectually. 



If you follow the above directions you will turn out an article 

 equal to the best in the market, and will obtain the best price. 



Let us now figure the cost and proht. 



COST. 



Ten noros of bottom land at $100 per acre $1,000 00 



One thousMnd trees at fifteen cents each 150 00 



Plowing the land 2;') 00 



Digging tiie lioles 50 00 



riantiiiE; the trees 25 00 



Cnltivating. 25 00 



Second, third, and fourth years, fifty dollars each for plowing and cultivating 150 00 



Taxes for four years, 50 00 



Total $1,475 00 



PROFIT. 



The fifth year you will have 1 ,000 trees bearing at least sixty pounds each, or thirty 



tons, equal to ten tons of dried prunes worth ten cents ])er pound, or $200 per ton. $2,000 00 

 If you deduct ten percent for labor you will have a balance of $1,800 net, |)aying 



for the wiiole of the investment and $300 profit left. 



The sixth year you will have sixty tons of green fruit, or twenty tons of dried 



prunes.' worth $4,000 00 



On the seventh year your trees will be in full bearing condition, and will bring each 

 frnn 150 to 200, oi- even 300 pounds to the tree, and I believe I am on the safe 

 side when I say that each tree will bring you five dollars net each year, or $5,000 00 



All of this from an investment of less than $1,500. And what 

 would be the valac of a property bringing $5,000 a year ? I suppose 

 not less than $25,000. 



I dried this year twenty tons of French prunes from six hundred 

 trees, and got $4,000 for them in sacks. 



