564 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



seven periods of a decade each; these ought to make very fair 

 units for the collection of data. 



data for one period may be useful. 



Unfortunately we do not have for any one of the seven periods 

 much accurate data either as to the average total cost of production 

 or the cost of any one of the several orchard operations, nor do we 

 know much about the average cost of the materials used in orchard- 

 ing, or the average selling price of the produce of the orchard. Now 

 the value of such data is obvious to those who are making any attempt 

 to keep track of the finances of their business and the object of the 

 present paper is to put you in possession of figures that, rightly 

 used, ought to be helpful. " Rightly used," because most figures 

 are capable of several interpretations and all are subject to the lapses 

 and mistakes common to erring mortals. 



COST OF APPLE PRODUCTION IN AUCHTER ORCHARD 



CONDITION OF ORCHARD. 



The fruit to be considered is the apple as grown in an orchard 

 situated a few miles west of Rochester, known to many as the Auchter 

 orchard, in which the Geneva Experiment Station has carried on a 

 comparative test of sod mulch and tillage during the past ten years. 

 Added value is given to the figures to be presented by the fact that 

 the orchard was selected for experimental work because it was as 

 typical as could be found in the great apple belt of western New 

 York. The trees are Baldwins, 27 years old at the beginning of 

 the experiment, 37 now. The accounts tell what each of the orchard 

 operations has cost, the number of bushels of fruit produced, and the 

 selling price — something substantial to show what the outgo and the 

 income of a New York apple orchard are, in its fourth decade, 

 the period just preceding prime of life. The data, as far as 

 possible, are given for three units, the barrel of apples, the tree and 

 the acre. 



average yield. 



The first information we must have in getting at the problem 

 before us is the number of barrels of apples per acre per year. The 

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



