Annual Cost Factors in Growing Peaches 349 



pend on factors that are variable. There is close connection 

 between the market price and the abundance of the supply of 

 fruit on the market at any time. In seasons of large produc- 

 tion, the average returns to the grower are commonly small. 

 Not infrequently a comparatively small crop throughout the 

 country, or in a region which ordinarily supplies the markets 

 during a rather definite period, may bring the growers 

 actually more money because of the high prices received, 

 than does a much larger crop which because of its abun- 

 dance makes prices low. 



So far as individual orchards are concerned, aside from 

 the matter of prevailing market prices for the fruit, the 

 yield is perhaps the most important single factor in deter- 

 mining net proceeds. It costs nearly as much to produce 

 a small crop as it does a large one. The overhead charges 

 and the expense of tillage, pruning, and insect and disease 

 control and other items of orchard maintenance are sub- 

 stantially the same regardless of the size of the crop. The 

 principal difference is in thinning and perhaps in fertilizing 

 in some instances, and of course there are differences in 

 harvesting and handling the crop; but these items are 

 proportionate, or nearly so, to the quantity of fruit handled. 



For these reasons, and others that require no specific 

 mention, it is difficult to satisfy an inquiring and analytical 

 mind in response to the question, often asked, whether peach- 

 growing is a profitable enterprise. 



