STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 



The fruit to be considered is the apple as grown in our 

 orchard, situated a few miles west of Rochester, New York. 

 Added value is given to the figures I have to present, by the 

 fact that the orchard was selected for experimental work because 

 it was as typical as could be found of the great apple belt of 

 western New York. The trees are Baldwins, twenty-seven 

 years old at the beginning of the experiment, thirty-seven now. 

 Our accounts tell what each of the orchard operations has cost, 

 the number of bushels of fruit produced and the selling price. 

 In short, we think we have something substantial to show what 

 the outgo and income of a New York apple orchard is in the 

 fourth decade of its life, the period just preceding prime of life. 

 We shall give the data, as far as possible, for three units, the 

 barrel of apples, the tree and the acre. 



The first information we must have in getting at a problem 

 is the number of barrels of apples per acre, per year. The exact 

 number for the cultivated plat in this ten-year average is 116.8 

 barrels. Graded, the acre average for the period is 79.2 for 

 barreled stock; 37.6 barrels of evaporator and cider stock. 

 Reducing these figures to the tree unit we have for barrel stock 

 2.93; for evaporator stock 1.4. Total per tree, 4.33 barrels. 

 The proportion of evaporator and cider stock is seemingly high — 

 made so by two autumn gales, in different seasons, which gave 

 many windfalls. Such episodes come in the life of every 

 orchard. Yields per acre will vary greatly with the same variety 

 in different orchards, even in the same section, but there is little 

 reason to think that the ten-year acre average just given is 

 much above the mark for orchards that are cared for — well 

 tilled, sprayed and pruned plantations. It is, of course, much 

 greater than the average yield of Baldwins in New York for the 

 reason that fully half of our orchards, to the shame of the state, 

 are wholly or partially neglected. 



The first item in cost of production to be considered is interest 

 on investment, and we come at once to an entry in our account 

 over which there can be much disagreement. What is a Baldwin 

 orchard in full bearing, in the prime of life, worth? Sales are 

 too few, and most of those that take place are made under con- 

 ditions too abnormal to make selling price a safe gauge of value. 

 Suppose we make the value $500 per acre and call the interest 

 five per cent. This valuation is not high, for it includes not 



