65 



/ 



It will be readily seen that it was quite difficult to se- 

 cure unsprayed trees in orchards of orchardists who were 

 convinced of the value of this practice already. It will also 

 he seen that it was necessary to get check trees on the farms 

 of those men who were less successful in their orchard 

 practice with the exception of a few. The County Agents 

 gave between 55 and 60 public demonstrations to show the 

 farmers the necessity of thorough work, proper equipment 

 and material to use. These were taken from various parts 

 of the state. These records in no way approach Experiment 

 Station data in degree of accuracy but they do represent the 

 actual cost to farmers to do on their own farms an operation 

 that is a common farm practice. 



From these records it is found that the cost of spraying 

 per tree varied from 12c to >f!].08 or an average of 52c, the 

 increase in fruit from less than V^ bbl. to 4 bbls. with an 

 average of 1 and 38-100 bbls. The increase in value was 

 from 40c loss to $10.12 gain or an average of $4.50 per tree. 

 It will be noticed that there is a great variation in these 

 figures but it is believed that the va ration is no greater than 

 the variation in cost of almost any farm jiractice as per- 

 formed ])y the various farmers. 



It is interesting to note that tlie high cost per tree was 

 on an orchard of old trees never before sprayed. The low 

 cost per tree was on a young oreliard of trees that had been 

 well eared for and the spraying was done in a careful and 

 iip-to-date way. From this data we can gather that a man 

 who has an orchard of fair sized trees and does not spray 

 can estimate that it will cost him aliout 50e per tree and he 

 may expect about 1 and 1-3 bl)ls. increase and with the 

 ]'revailing price of apples at this year's level the increased 

 value of the fruit would lie about $4.50 per tree. This piece 

 or work lias demonstrated to those in County Agent work 

 that there is a big advantage in all working toward a 

 definite end as the information obtained is much more con- 

 vincing than that secured from a single county. It has also 

 been a great help in making a good farm practice common 



