New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 525' 



State, but we greatly doubt if there are many or any fruit-growers 

 in New York who yearly pay $16.28 per acre for the cultivation 

 of their orchards. The same operations in the Auchter orchard for 

 the same ten years cost $.80 annually per acre for cutting the grass 

 and $7.39 per acre for cultivation. 



Table IV. — Comparative Cost of Sod Mulch and Tillage Methods of 



Handling Apple Orchards. 



hitchings orchard. 



The differences in cost per acre of tillage are not due to prices 

 of labor since the rate per hour in the two orchards averaged the 

 same. The cost of the operation in the two orchards varied some- 

 what, of course, because of the diverse character of the soils and of 

 the lay of the land — the Auchter orchard being the easier to cultivate. 

 Then, too, the smallness of the plats has made cultivation more 

 expensive in the Hitchings orchard, and, lastly, whereas the average 

 number of cultivations which Mr. Auchter considered sufficient to 

 keep the land in good tilth was seven, Mr. Hitchings thought his 

 land required nine cultivations. This brings out the point that the 

 cost of tillage is bound to vary greatly depending upon land, tools, 

 teams, number of cultivations and other factors, whereas the cost 

 of cutting grass in the orchard will be approximately the same in 

 all parts of the State. 



