BETTER FRUIT 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF MODERN, PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



How Can We Make More Money On Apples? 



WHENEVER any line of business 

 is not paying a satisfactory 

 profit tiiere is a reason. The 

 logical thing to do, which fruitgrowers 

 have not done, is to make a thorough 

 investigation of each department of the 

 business in order to tind out where the 

 leakage is, how the cost of pro(hiction 

 can be reduced and how the profit can 

 be increased. In other words, it is nec- 

 essary to make a complete analysis of 

 your business. Usually when a busi- 

 ness fails to pay a profit there are 

 reasons. 



Fruitgrowers today are in a similar 

 position to the manufacturers whose 

 business was affected by the Under- 

 wood tariff. Our jjrices are lower, and 

 therefore we have got to investigate 

 our business, analyze it and find what 

 we can do to reduce the cost of pro- 

 duction, what we can do to create a 

 greater efficiency in our selling meth- 

 ods and what we can do to secure bet- 

 ter prices. This naturally divides itself 

 under several heads: 



First — Cost of Production 



I have talked with a great many 

 growers upon this subject and in nearh 

 every instance I find that few growers 

 have kept a record of the actual ex- 

 penses incurred in growing a crop of 

 apples, and therefore 1 seldom find one 

 who can furnish the costs in each de- 

 partment of growing. \Yithout this we 

 cannot ascertain what is costing us too 

 much money, and therefore we do not 

 have a definite knowledge as to where 

 we can reduce the cost of production. 

 The average grower will tell you that 

 it costs all the way from 70 cents to 

 $1.00 per box to grow a box of apples, 

 pack it and deliver it to the local ware- 

 house or depot. The cost of growing a 

 box of apples consists of the following 

 items of expense: f'runing, cultivation, 

 spraying and irrigation. ^^Tlen grow- 

 ers keep records of these items of ex- 

 pense and determine the exact costs, 

 and compare them with the other grow- 

 ers' accounts, then they will ascertain 

 where their own costs are too high, and 

 with such knowledge they certainly 

 ought to be able to reduce each cost to 

 a reasonable mininmm. 



Harvesting 



The harvesting cost varies jjerhaps 

 more than almost any other cost of the 

 grower and has varied in the past from 

 about 40 cents a box to (iO cents. Again, 

 seldom do 1 find a grower who knows 

 the exact cost of each individual fea- 

 ture connected with harvesting. Until 

 such items of expense are known in 

 connection with each feature of the 



By E. H. Shepard, Editor "Better Fruit." 



harvesting, the grower is certainly not 

 in a position to reduce this cost. It 

 may be surprising to some of you who 

 have not given the matter study to 

 know that there are ten individual 

 costs, from picking the apple to deliver- 

 ing it to the warehouse or depot. They 

 are as follows: Cost of the box; haul- 

 ing same knocked down to packing 

 house; making up the box, including 

 nails; picking, hauling empties to 

 orchard and filled boxes to packing 

 house, grading, packing, paper, nail- 

 ing up, extra cost in packing house, 

 hauling to the depot. 



Features of this Issue 



HOW CAN WE MAKE MOKE MONEY 

 ON APPLES 



WHAT IS THE FARMER'S REAL 

 INCOME 



LEAF NOTCHES A GUIDE TO 

 VARIETIES 



SPRAYING AND PRI'NING TO 



COMBAT POWDERY 



MILDEW 



HOME USE SAVES BIG APPLE 

 CROP 



If we can save ."> or 10 cents per box 

 in the growing and 10 cents per box 

 in harvesting, it is worth saving. I 

 know of a few orchards where the 

 growing expense this year was 2.5 cents 

 I)er box. This included all costs con- 

 nected with the growing of the crop 

 from the end of harvesting until the 

 lieginning of tlie next harvesting sea- 

 son. 1 believe I am safe in saying that 

 it has been costing growers over 70 

 cents per box (o produce and harvest 

 a box of apjiles, and I believe 1 am safe 

 in saying lliat tliis expense can be re- 

 (kiced to approxhiiately 60 cents per 

 box, not inclu(hng interest on the in- 

 vestment. 



Second — By-Products 

 The cull apples from an orchard al 

 the age of full bearing wilt be from 10 

 to 20 per cent of the entire crop. The 

 grower understands that these cull 

 apijles are costing him just the same 

 amount of money to grow, just the 

 same amount of money lo pick and just 

 the same amount of money to grade out 

 that the good apples are costing. If he 

 cannot dispose of these cull apples then 

 he has lost just so much money which 



he has spent in producing them. Vine- 

 gar factories and cider mills paid last 

 year $7.00 and $8.00 per ton, and this 

 year they paid $0.00 per ton. In dollars 

 and cents the cull apples, at $6.00 per 

 ton, will amount to about $20.00 per 

 acre. If a man has 40 acres that would 

 mean $800, which is a nice little sum 

 for the grower to realize out of what 

 otherwise would be waste and there- 

 fore bring him nothing. 



Third — Diversity Farming 



For nearly 40 years 1 have tried to 

 find a way which would enable me to 

 earn a living by working half of the 

 lime and loafing the other half, but I 

 have not found it. Yet the great ma- 

 jority of fruitgrowers in the Northwest 

 have evidently been trying this stunt 

 for years. You know and I know that 

 the average orchardist does not actu- 

 ally put in much more than six or 

 seven months' work on his place dur- 

 ing the entire season outside of his 

 chores. B>' that I mean that after the 

 first of November, when a crop is har- 

 vested and during the months of De- 

 cember, January, February and March, 

 the fruitgrower does not do much of 

 anxthina except a little pruning. The 

 (ither six months, outside of the har- 

 vesting season, the average fruitgrower 

 is not a very hard worker, and a big 

 lot of them spend from one-quarter 

 to half their time fooling around town 

 instead of being actually engaged in 

 producing something on the ranch 

 which would bring them in extra 

 money. \Vith few exceptions, there is 

 not a single man engaged in the fruit- 

 growing business in the Northwest who 

 cannot do something to bring in some 

 extra money. It is not my purpose to 

 fell you just how to do these things, 

 but I do want to call your attention to 

 a few of the diversity lines in which 

 you can engage and make some extra 

 money from without very much ex- 

 pense and in this way utilize your time 

 and ptit in .'?(i.') days of the year if nec- 

 essary. .\mong such shie lines, which 

 any f'ruitgrower can engage in if he is 

 not too iaz\, are bees, ixudlry, hogs, 

 sheep, truck gardening and dairying. 

 The work is not hard nor the amount 

 of time re<iuired very great to care f<n- 

 bees, poullry, hogs (u- sheep. Dairying 

 and truck gardening reiiuire consider- 

 able extra work, but no more time than 

 Ihe average fruitgrower could reas(m- 

 ably spare and still give his orchard 

 the best of care. 



All of tis know that our soils (|iii(kl.\ 

 become deficient in nitrogen and hu- 

 mus. In order to supply these elements 

 ami maintain the fertility of the soil 



