228 Appendix. 



they should produce four boxes of apples to the tree. As the orchard increases 

 in age the expense of cultivation, spraying, and pruning increases : but if the 

 orchard is cared for each year tlie maximum cost for cultivation, spraying, 

 and pruning, will not be greater any year than $10 per acre. Then the 

 maximum production of the orchard each year is hard to estimate, but after 

 an apple orchard is nine years old, one year with another, the average pro- 

 duction would not be less than ten boxes per tree, or six hundred and ninety- 

 boxes to the acre. (A box of apples contains one bushel.) 



COST OF A PRUNE ORCHARD IN POLK COUNTY. 



By James R. Sheppaed, Zena, Willamette Valley, West Side. 



I estimate the cost of ten acres planted to prunes, twenty feet apart, under 

 ordinary conditions, as follows : 



DR. 



Eleven hundred yearling trees (110 per acre) at 6 cents $ G6 00 



Preparation of land — plowing and cultivation 20 <•«) 



Setting out 1,100 trees at 1 cent each 11 i>'> 



Cultivation and care, first year* 



Cultivation and care, second year* 



Cultivation and care, third year (no other crop) 30 Oo 



Cultivation and care fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years 120 00 



Total cost ) . . ) $247 OO 



CR. 



Fourth year, one-third bushel of prunes per tree at 60 cents per bushel. . . .$220 00 

 Fifth year, one-half bushel of prunes per tree at 60 cents per bushel 330 on 



Which gradually increases until the eighth year, when the trees are in full 

 bearing and will yield from two to three bushels of prunes per tree. 



In some instances these figures will be doubled, in others reduced. It 

 will be observed my estimates are very conservative, and no one need do worse, 

 provided he uses ordinary care and Judgment ; but very much depends on lo- 

 cation, soil, etc. I think a net profit — after seven years of age — of $100 per 

 acre is not at all an extravagant estimate at present prices, say 5 cents per 

 pound, evaporated prunes. An occasional off year must be reckoned, say one 

 in four for Italian prunes, and one in eight for Petites, or French prunes. Esti- 

 mates of $300 to $500 per acre are misleading. I think, though, much better 

 has occasionally been done under very high prices and favorable condifons. 



My estimate presupposes proper pruning. Where land is well cultivated, 

 but no pruning is done, a bushel per tree the fourth year may be cancelled,, 

 but the tree is injured thereby. 



COST OF A PRUNE ORCHARD NEAR SALEM. 



By R. D. Allex, Silverton, Willamette Valley, East Side. 



FIRST YEAR. 



Cost of trees, per acre $10 00 



Planting same 3 Oo 



I'lowing ground, one foot deep, and subsoiling eight inches 4 Oo 



Harrowing and cultivating, eight times 2 40 



Hoeing around trees 60 



Total cost first year $20 OO 



*No charge for cultivation and care first and second years, as it is more than 

 offset by potato or bean crops raised between the rows in those years. 



