892 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



the labor, or putting in the cover crop, but not the cost of the seed. 

 For the cover crop seed usually red clover in this orchard - 

 there must be added $2.74 per acre for seed, or $.023 per barrel of 

 apples. 



COST OF PRUNING 



The expense of pruning per year per acre was $3.56, and, 

 since there are twenty-seven trees to the acre in this orchard, the 

 cost per tree was $.131. The cost per barrel of apples was $.03. 

 The average price paid for the work was $2.00 per day of ten 

 hours. 



COST OF SPRAYING 



The average cost per acre for spraying was $11.28 ; per tree 

 $.418; per barrel of apples $.096. The spraying was done the 

 first few years with a hand sprayer, then for several yearc with a 

 Niagara gas sprayer, and the last three with a gasoline power 

 outfit having two runs of hose. The first five years bordeaux 

 mixture and arsenite of lime were used ; the last five, lime-sulphur 

 and arsenate of lead. The orchard was sprayed three times per 

 season during the first five of the ten seasons. The second five 

 years it was sprayed but twice per season, the first application 

 being the dormant spray made just before the buds began to swell, 

 and the second just as the blossoms dropped. This treatment 

 has given an almost perfect crop, wormy and scabby apples being 

 rarities scarcely to be found in the orchard. 



EXPENSE OF SUPERINTENDENCE 



The last of the cost of production charges is that of superintend- 

 ing the work. The services of the average fruit grower are worth 

 more than the $2 per day allowed for actual work, and this defici- 

 ency should be made up by a charge for superintending the work. 

 The Station paid for this service $300 per year. This is a fair 

 price, since there are few competent orchardists who could not 

 superintend a farm enterprise of several times the magnitude of 

 a ten-acre orchard. The charge to be entered against a barrel of 

 apples for superintending, then, is $.25. 



HARVEST EXPENSES 



Picking, packing, sorting, and hauling have been done in diverse 

 ways during the ten years, and the items cannot be segregated; 



