14 



A Going Concern, The dairy farm and the orange grove are illus- 

 trations of two very different types of business. In the case of the 

 dairy farm the farmer receives his pay check every month. With the 

 orange grower, payment comes in during a restricted period. On a 

 new dairy farm it will take a year to get the farm under full headway. 

 In the case of the orange grove it will take about five years to bring 

 the trees into commercial bearing; that is, into a condition where it 

 will pay expenses. It may not come into full bearing for ten years. 

 Dairying is a going concern almost from the start, while to secure 

 a successful orange grove it requires many years of waiting which can 

 be afforded only by men who have other sources of income. One of 

 the most important questions to determine in the purchase of a piece 

 of property is how soon it will become a going concern. Some banks 

 adopt it as a policy not to loan except to going concerns. The man 

 who must earn a living through his own labor will do well to invest in 

 an orchard or ranch from which he can get immediate returns, rather 

 than to invest in land which will require years to develop. On the 

 other hand, a man who merely wishes to invest capital may easily spend 

 five or even ten years in developing a business farm enterprise. The 

 fact that relatively few men have capital so to invest gives them a 

 greater opportunity to reap eventually a good return. 



Side Issues. It is, however, possible for a man to make himself a 

 going concern by taking up side issues while his orchard is growing. 

 There are two general methods of doing so : one is to grow intercrops 

 in his orchard while the trees are small. The success of this method 

 will depend upon a number of factors, including the kind of fruit, the 

 abundance and cost of water, and market conditions. The other 

 method is to engage in outside work while the orchard is growing. 

 It is a rather common practice in the citrus sections for a man who 

 is starting a grove of his own to care for other groves at the same 

 time; thus a man w^ith a ten or twenty acre tract of his own may 

 have charge of two or three other bearing groves, ranging from five 

 to twenty acres each. It is generally estimated that one man can do 

 the cultural work on forty acres. The considerable number of non- 

 resident owners makes a demand for such services. The smallness of 

 the areas makes the arrangement physically possible. 



Diversified Agriculture. In the illustrations which have been cited 

 it has been assumed that only a single crop was being used. In fact, 

 however, many farms do and most farms should raise a variety of 

 products. A diversity of crops helps to conserve the soil, to keep down 

 insect enemies and fungous disease, and to make possible a more 

 constant and economical use of labor. It may also result in reducing 



