LEASING ORCHARDS 125 



one is looking for the best location and perliaps the boundary line should 

 be drawn in general from Omaha to St. Joseph. Last winter demon- 

 strated that orchards located north of the Platte river suffered some from 

 winter injury. As we go south from St. Joseph we find a few quite se- 

 '•ious protlems such as insect enemies, diseases and mortj hot fall days, 

 which add to the problems of handling many valuable fall varieties of 

 apples. 



There are other problems of the location of an orchard which we must 

 look at from a different point of view. One of the most important is near- 

 ness to shipping points and proximity to storage facilities. The writer 

 has had personal experience in handling crops of apples grown in four dif- 

 ferent orchards, each orchard located different distances from the shipping 

 point. 



The distances from orchards to railroad siding were eighty rods, two 

 and one-half miles, five miles and six miles respectively. One man and 

 team would haul eight loads per day, where the trip was only one-fourth 

 of a mile. In the orchard located two and one-half miles from the rail- 

 road station, the same team and man hauled three and four loads per day, 

 while in the orchards located five and six miles from shipping point, two 

 loads constituted a day's work. One of the finest orchards in Nebraska is 

 located nine miles from shipping point and at this distance, a man and 

 team will handle but one load per day. 



Our teams hauled eighteen barrels per load at an average cost of four 

 dollars per day for man and team. In the orchard located eighty rods 

 from the station the cost of hauling was two and eight-tenths cents per 

 barrel. And in the orchard located six miles from the station the cost 

 was 11 cents per barrel. While an expense of even 11 cents per barrel 

 seems small, it is an item which can not be overlooked when handling a 

 crop of apples. It means $11 per hundred or $110 for every thousand bar- 

 rels of apples. The expense is likewise proportionate for haulage on 

 empty packages, and to this additional expense must be added for neces- 

 sary trips for repairs and materials needed during the growing season of 

 the crop. 



In this connection we must not forget to figure that time wasted during 

 second spraying is costing the grower from $1 to $5 per hour. 



Age of the Tree — The age of the trees is not a very important con- 

 sideration in the proposition of leasing an orchard, because most of the 

 orchards which can be leased are upwards of twelve years of age, which 

 makes most varieties in prime bearing age. This is due to the fact that 

 very little planting on a commercial scale has been practiced during the 

 past ten years. The writer has inspected a few orchards which were of- 

 fered for rent Avhicli were not considered a good proposition at $10 per 

 ■ acre on a five year basis, on account of the trees being young and too 

 small to produce profitable crops. If these same orchards could have been 

 leased for a period of ten years the proposition would have been worth con- 

 sidering. 



Varieties — One of the most important considerations in leasing an or- 



