Horticulture in Oregon, 231 



V 



ESTIMATED COST OP A VINEYARD— WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 



By WiLBER K. Newell, DiUey, West Side. 



The expense of starting a vineyard is large, and sliould be well consid- 

 ered before planting. 



Land per acre .$50 On 



Plowing, good and deep 2 5o 



Harrowing : 1 0<» 



Digging holes 15 00 



Stakes S 00 



Planting 12 oo 



Eight hundred vines, at 4 cents each 32 0(^ 



Cultivating first season, eight times 8 00 



Hoeing twice 3 00 



Tieing to stakes and pinching back laterals 4 00 



Total $135 00 



SECOND YEAR. 



Pruning in winter if 2 50 



Plowing, cultivating, hoeing, and for season 20 00 22 50 



Total $158 00 



THIRD YEAR TRELLIS WILL COST : 



Wire $ 5 00 



Posts 22 50 



Setting posts and stretching wire 15 00 



.$42 00 



Pruning, cultivation, etc., for season 25 00 G7 00 



Grand total $225 00 



These figures are certainly as low as good work can be done for. It is 

 generally considered that an acre of grapes in full beaing has cost very nearly 

 $500 ; but as the crop should pay its own way after the third year, I do not 

 count the expense beyond that time. Grapes should be in full bearing at eight 

 or nine years, and with proper care continue for fifty and 100 years, so there 

 is ample compensation for the heavy expense of getting started. 



A fair, average yield per acre would be about four tons. If it falls below 

 three tons there is something seriously wrong with the grower or his vineyard. 

 It is hard to find more delightful work than the care of a vineyard, and where 

 there is a family it is an ideal occupation. 



All the foregoing estimates are by actual fruitgrowers, who make their 

 living by growing fruits, and are not mere theorists, to which I may add 

 my own testimony, that the net profits from my prune orchard ranged from 

 $100 to $200 per acre, according to the price for the evaporated product. My 

 pear orchard never netted me less than $110 per acre, my apple and cherry trees 

 doing much better than either, possibly because they are older. 



Before leaving this subject I want to say a few words about berries and 

 their culture. Every orchardist should grow berries by way of diversified fruit- 

 growing, or as a by-product, so to speak. The labor and harvest coming before- 

 the larger fruits come into market and require all the fruitgrower's attention. 

 They come into market when the farmer has little else to sell and bring in 

 ready cash at a time when the exchequer is liable to be pretty low. 



The demand for berries has never been fully supplied, especially of rasp- 

 berries, blackberries, and currants, followed by the strawberry, for shipping to the 

 distant markets. All berries do well here, as is evidenced by the fact that 

 wild berries grow to perfection and in great abundance and variety in Oregon. 

 We might name as profitable berries the currant, gooseberry, blackberry, rasp- 

 berry, Lucretia dewberry, mulberry, cranberry, strawberry. Loganberry in the 

 various varieties. It is not necessary to enter into the detail of soil, care. 



