igij 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 25 



method records. If this plan appeals 

 as a logical way to get at orchard costs 

 there should be a number here who 

 will give their names to the secretary 

 or their inspector after the meeting, 

 that they may be later supplied with 

 blanks and instructions for making 

 their reports uniform. I realize that 

 this means considerable work for who- 

 ever goes into it, and suppose there are 

 very few growers here who would deny 

 that they have already more than they 

 can attend to, and because of this such 

 a detailed study of the cost proposition 

 may be passed up. The fact remains, 

 however, whether we like it or not, and 

 whether we like to say so right out in 

 meeting or not, that there has not been 

 much money made growing apples in 

 the last five years, and that if the cost 

 proposition is not reduced down to its 

 lowest terms there will be still less 

 made in the next five years. We've 

 either got to "make good," get out, or 

 get kicked out. So let's either take this 

 scheme, or leave it, and adopt another 

 one. Whatever happens, let us try to 

 find out how to produce our apples at 

 a less cost. I would like to outline in 

 a general way just what a study of 

 costs would consist of, showing what 

 the Oregon Agricultural College Station 

 has reported in Bulletin No. 132 con- 

 cerning present costs, and drawing 

 what conclusions we may from the few 

 figures available. 



Orchard costs may be divided under 

 three main headings: (1) Maintenance 

 costs; (2) Overhead costs; (3) Handling 

 costs. Under maintenance costs we 



When the Buds 

 Appear 



and in blossom time, if you 

 want the best apples and other 

 fruits, you must put new energy 

 into your trees and plants with 



Nitrate 



of 



Soda 



and you will obtain the largest 

 possible yield of choicest fruit. 



Nitrate of Soda contains 15% 

 of nitrogen immediately and 

 all available. This means an 

 early crop and extra prices. 

 The price of nitrate is ad- 

 vancing. Write now for liter- 

 ature and quotations. 



Nitrate Agencies Co. 



206 Leary Building 

 SEATTLE 





^ AND COCOA 



/v 



/// / 



this can CUtS 

 table costs 



in more than a million homes in the West. 

 Yours should be among them. 



You'll find a "rounded" spoon of 

 Ghirardelli's Ground Chocolate is equal in 

 chocolate strength to the "heaping" spoon 

 of others. 



A cup of Ghirardelli's for breakfast will do 

 more than please the taste — it nourishes — 

 enables you to do away with more ex- 

 pensive foods. 



Tomorrow try a sensible 

 breakfast — a cup of 



GkirardelliiS 



Ground CItocolate 



Since 1852 



D. GHIRARDELLI CO. 



San Francisco 



include pruning, cultivation, spraying, 

 irrigation, cover crops, fertilizers, thin- 

 ning, propping and like items. The 

 Oregon bulletin, presenting figures 

 taken from one thousand growers in 

 the Northwest, shows an annual main- 

 tenance cost of .$40.75 per acre on trees 

 10 to 18 years of age — .$40.75 per acre 

 with an average yield per acre of 233 

 boxes, making maintenance cost amount 

 to 17.8 cents per box. Compared with 

 this are the figures from the same bul- 

 letin of an 11-year-old orchard in Idaho 

 with a maintenance cost of $25.35 per 

 acre, producing 241 boxes to the acre, 

 making a cost of 10.5 cents per box for 

 mainlenance. As a further comparison, 

 our figures on Pomona Ranch, near 

 Dayton, Washington, trees 10 and 17 

 years old: Mainlenance per acre S39.40; 

 yield 351 boxes per acre; maintenance 

 cost jjer box 11.2 cents. These figures 

 arc of value to show, (1) that it is pos- 



sible to grow apples at a maintenance 

 cost of around 10 cents a box, which 

 would be a saving of 7 or 8 cents a box 

 over the average for the Northwest, 

 and, (2) that the ability to keep down 

 maintenance cost depends a great deal 

 on getting high yields per acre, every 

 year, with rigid economy in getting 

 these yields. 



Under overhead costs we include 

 taxes, insurance, depreciation, salary of 

 manager, interest on the investment. 

 There is a tendency to pass these tilings 

 by as relatively unimportant. The fact 

 is that they are very important. In the 

 Oregon bulletin Professor Lewis gives 

 the average overhead cost per acre for 

 the Northwest at S110.7(i, as compared 

 with $40.75 per acre for maintenance. 

 This makes overhead figure at 47 cents 

 per box, as compared with 17.8 cents 

 per box for maintenance. It is hard to 

 conceive that fruit growers as a whole 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



