94 



$20.48 an acre from the orchard itself has brought this cost 

 down to $52.70 an acre. It is safe to say that the orchard 

 would have cost even more than it did had it not been for 

 the crops, for many operations charged directly to the crops 

 would of necessity have been charged to the trees. The cost 

 per 100 trees does not mean much as it often happens that 

 not all the trees are covered by an operation, and as the num- 

 ber of trees per acre greatly affects these costs. 



It will be noted from the summary that in this case bean* 

 and wheat were more profitable crops to grow in the or- 

 chard than corn. Only about one-third of an 

 acre of strawberries was grown in the seventh year and al- 

 though showing good profits cannot be taken as the most 

 profitable crop to grow, because of the limitations of labor, 

 markets, etc., as to the number of acres which could be 

 handled. 



THE COST OF A FIVE-YEAR OLD ORCHARD. 



"We have another and younger orchard upon which the 

 records have been kept. This orchard of five acres contains 

 126 standard apple trees filled both ways with 375 peach 

 trees. It was set in the spring of 1908 so that the trees have 

 grown five seasons. The permanents, apples, are set 36x40 

 apart so that with the peaches between the trees stand 18x20 

 feet apart. A crop of beans was grown between the tree 

 rows each of the first four seasons. The first season a full 

 seven rows of beans 28 inches apart, were planted in the 

 wider space ; the second and third seasons, six rows and the 

 fourth season only four rows. In the fifth season no crop or 

 beans was grown in the orchard. The crop was very good 

 each year until the last. One application of manure, one 

 crop of clover and two seedings of rye have been plowed 

 imder, and in addition a liberal amount of commercial fer- 

 tilizer used with each crop of beans. In 1911 the peach 

 trees bore their first crop. The record of the five years is as 

 follows : 



