No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 355 



tion of apples, and I have wTitten to quite a number of men, I have 

 spoken to quite a number of other men, and I have figured out the 

 following costs. 



Now 1 know that you people are not going to agree with me, that 

 is not all of you, because perhaps under your conditions it will 

 cost more or it will cost less, but remember that these are average 

 conditions for average varieties; and the point I want to draw out 

 is that the cultural operations, the growing of the fruit, costs very 

 little compared with the marketing of it. Now these figures are 

 taken on 20-year-old trees. The average cost of producing a barrel 

 of apples is about 29 cents; that is counting the labor, all of the 

 labor and the material used in the orchard, such as fertilization, 

 cultivation, cover ci-ops, tliinning, s])raying and pruning. I am not 

 counting the interest on the investment, insurance or anything like 

 that, but simply the labor and the material that goes into the orchard 

 to grow the crop. We are not counting picking or packing, and 

 these are as near as I can come to the figures: The cultivation and 

 the cover crop, about five cents per barrel; fertilizers, about five 

 cents; spraying, four cents; pruning, six cents and thinning nine 

 cents. Now those figures are all high compared with most men, 

 but there you see we have 29 cents to grow the barrel of apples. 

 Then we will follow it a little bit further, taking 15 cents for packing, 

 15 cents for the barrel, including freight and hauling, 45 cents; 

 including freight, storage, etc., we have a total of $1.20. Now 

 after we have got the barrel of apples ready for the consumer, 

 it has cost us |1.20. And here is the point, in order to make it 

 pay, I believe we should do all of those labor processes right. I 

 know a great many men in the State of Pennsylvania that are good 

 sprayers, they are good cultivators, they are pretty good pruners, 

 but they fall down on fertilizers and fall down still harder on 

 thinning. 



A Member: When do you start to compute that cost? 



ME. FUNK: That was about eight months ago. 



A Member: I mean at what age of the tree. 



MR. FUNK: This is a 20-year-old tree. Now a young tree will 

 cost more than an older tree perhaps a little bit less, but this tree is 

 20 years old. I say more of us fall down on fertilizers and still 

 more on thinning. I believe that more trees are dying to-day in the 

 State of Pennsylvania because they are starved to death than be- 

 cause of anything else. We find it everywhere and I say I believe 

 that we ought to fertilize a little better and we ought to thin a 

 little better. 



Now we will take the fertilization again. Paying five cents a barrel 

 for fertilizer, you will be able to keep that tree growing in first 

 class condition; you will be able to have it make as much wood 

 growth as it should. I like to have on a tree of 20 years of age 

 anywhere from 8 to 15 inches, and that is the best sign that I 

 know of to tell us whether or not we are treating that tree rightly. 

 For nine cents we are able to thin that tree, and we will take up 

 the importance of thinning a little bit later. Last year I sold quite 

 a number of apples right out of the orchard. Apples at that time 

 were selling at 35 cents a bushel, that is apples that had been picked 



