New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 563 



administration, fruit-growing is becoming a more and more risky 

 business. Of this you need to be reminded rather than informed. 

 Experience and the teachings of years have given the old hands in 

 fruit-growing, at least, knowledge of the uncertainties in growing 

 fruit, and now everywhere we are hearing discussions of the business 

 side of the industry. Temporarily the " idea of making two blades 

 of grass grow where one grew before," with which agriculture has 

 been chiefly concerned in the immediate past, is eclipsed by the 

 conception, just beginning to be realized, that agriculture is a rather 

 highly developed enterprise requiring for success careful business 

 management. 



accurate data difficult to secure. 



This Bulletin is presented with the hope that it may prove a 

 helpful contribution to those who want data on the cost of produc- 

 ing apples and on the yields, selling price, and profits in the culture 

 of this fruit. Neither time nor material, however, suffices for any- 

 thing like a full consideration of the subject; for keeping accounts 

 in apple-growing is a difficult and complicated piece of business. 

 The yearly inventory and striking of balances which do very well 

 for the grocer and butcher do not begin to tell the whole story in 

 fruit-growing. In growing apples, for instance, it takes several 

 years to bring an orchard into bearing, after which it barely main- 

 tains itself for a decade or two; the lean years and fat years are 

 more accentuated than in most other industries; advantages and dis- 

 advantages are exceedingly changeable; and the value of the invest- 

 ment is variable. 



ORCHARD PRODUCTION MUST BE STUDIED BY PERIODS. 



The only possible way to obtain an absolutely accurate reckon- 

 ing of the profits and losses of an apple orchard is to add up the 

 expenses for the whole life of the trees and subtract from the total 

 income; the remainder, if plus, is the profits; if minus, as often will 

 be the case, the losses. This plan in the short span of human life 

 will not work. Since annual accountings are not fair, and total ones 

 not possible, we must divide the life of the orchard into periods 

 and take data for each division. In New York, where the apple 

 tree lives as long as man, we may make from the life of an orchard 



