New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 5G7 



COST OF TILLAGE. 



Passing now to orchard operations the annual cost of tillage per 

 acre for the decade was $7.39, making the amount to be charged 

 against each barrel of fruit 6.3 cents. Tillage consisted, in this orchard, 

 of plowing the ground in the spring, after which it was harrowed, 

 rolled and then cultivated by harrowing an average of seven times 

 per season. The price paid for team work at the beginning of the 

 period was $4.00 per day of 10 hours; but the price advanced to 

 $5.00, a fair average being $4.50. Tillage includes the labor of 

 putting in the cover crop but not the cost of the seed. For the cover- 

 crop seed, in this orchard, usually red clover, must be added $2.74 

 per acre for seed or 2.3 cents per barrel of apples. 



COST OF PRUNING. 



The expense of pruning per year per acre was $3.56 — since 

 there are 27 trees to the acre in this orchard the cost per tree was 

 13.1 cents. The cost per barrel of apples was 3 cents. The average 

 price paid for the work was $2.00 per day oi 10 hours. 



COST OF SPRAYING. 



The average cost per acre for spraying was $11.28; per tree 41.8 

 cents; per barrel of apples 9.6 cents. The spraying was done the first 

 few years with a hand sprayer, then for several years with a Niagara 

 gas sprayer and the last three with a gasoline power outfit having 

 two runs of hose. The first five years bordeaux mixture and arse- 

 nite of lime were used; the last five, lime-sulphur and arsenate of 

 lead. The orchard was sprayed three times per season the first five 

 of the ten seasons. The second five years it was sprayed but twice 

 per season, the first application being the dormant spray made 

 just before buds began to swell; the second just as blossoms dropped. 

 This treatment has given an almost perfect crop, wormy and scabby 

 apples being rarities scarcely to be found in the orchard. 



EXPENSE OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 



The last of the cost of production charges is that of superintend- 

 ing the work. The services of the average fruit-grower are worth 

 more than the $2.00 per day allowed for actual work and this defici- 



