AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 

 APPLE INDUSTRY 



Bv HUBERT W. YOUNT and LORIAN P. JEFFERSON 



Introductiox 



The apple growers of Massachusetts, in common with those of the otlier 

 New England States, have felt for some time the need of more definite 

 linowledge of the apple industry — the number and ages of trees of different 

 varieties, and the volume of the commercial crop. In order to obtain this 

 information it was determined by a group representing the Experiment Sta- 

 tions, State Departments of Agriculture, the New England Research Council, 

 the Federal Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the New England Crop 

 Reporting Service, that a study should be made of the apple industry of 

 New England. The purposes of this study were, specifically: 



1. To secure information as to number and age of trees and the trend of 

 planting. 



2. To discover the volume of the apple crop and the amounts put on the 

 market. 



3. To discover the relative importance of each commercial variety. 



4. To determine the relative importance of orchards of different size. 



5. To discover common orchard practices in different producing areas. 



6. To learn the relative importance of apple growing as a source of farm 

 income. 



7. To determine the relative importance of different methods of marketing. 



8. To discover the extent to which grading is done. 



9. To learn the prices received and the reasons for price differences. 



10. To determine available farm storage space and the quantities stored. 



11. To determine probable future production. 



Methods and Scope 



The method employed in Massachusetts was personal interview with each 

 owner of a commercial orchard. For the purposes of this study a conuuercial 

 orchard was defined as one which contained a minimum of 100 bearing trees. 

 Exceptions were made in cases where orchards of fewer than 100 bearing trees 

 were of evident commercial importance, or where there were considerable 

 plantings of young trees which gave evidence of future commercial importance. 



Visits were made to over 2,000 apple growers and complete schedules were 

 secured from 1,754, which is 7 per cent of the whole number who reported 

 apple trees in the Census of 192-5. The growers visited reported 4-5 per cent 

 of the trees and 55 per cent of the production as stated in the Federal Census 

 of 1925. However, a large part of the production reported to the Federal 

 Census is used on the farm or sold for making into cider, and it is estimated 

 that the farms included in this survey grow over 73 per cent of the market- 

 able apples of the state. 



Cooperating Agencies 



Cooperating with the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Massa- 

 chusetts Experiment Station in securing this information, was the State 



