APPLES 



383 



Washinctoii State CollcRr Estimate 

 Cost of Kaisiiig: Apples 



Washington estimates place the cost of 

 raising and marketing one box of apples 

 at 53.1 cents, while a New York orchard- 

 ist says his cost shows an average of 

 $1.10 a barrel for nine years. Aside from 

 the value of knowing how much it costs 

 to do business is the more interesting 

 feature that growers are coming to de- 

 mand more knowledge of what their pro- 

 duce costs them. No factory would think 

 of doing business without knowing exact- 

 ly what the output cost, and as a farm 

 is nothing more or less than a factory 



The various items differ widely, and 

 here is where the long term is valuable. 

 A thought of the greatest importance 

 i.s driven home by a review of these fig- 

 ures. It is that profit begins after a 

 certain point of production is reached. 

 For instance, he says: "When our yield 

 was 102 barrels per acre the cost per bar- 

 rel was only 83 cents a barrel. When it 

 was 35 barrels per acre the cost per bar- 

 rel rose to $1.73. In 1910 we grew a crop 

 of 55 barrels per acre for $1.20 per bar- 

 rel." In other words, the greater the 

 crop the less the relative cost of pro- 

 duction, so that cost per box or barrel is 

 of little avail unless the output per acre 



Table Sliowing the Items of Expense in Producing Apples in a Six-Aere Orchard in 



Western >'ew York 



the farmer should know exactly what his 

 output is costing him so that he may 

 know whether or not he is prospering. 



The New York grower communicates 

 the results of his nine-year bookkeeping 

 to the Rural New Yorker. He sub- 

 mits a table that shows he has been pains- 

 taking. His figures contain two items 

 that do not appear in the Washington 

 table, namely, the Interest on the land, 

 and the overhead charges, such as taxes 

 and insurance. On the other hand his 

 table makes no mention of bringing the 

 orchard to bearing, as does the Washing- 

 ton figures. His orchard was from 36 

 to 50 years old and contained 234 trees, 

 or six and one-tenth acres. 



is known. The one thing lacking in this 

 table is the output. 



In 1902, for example, the cost of spray 

 was $6.64, while in 1910 it rose to $23.89, 

 with various figures between these ex- 

 tremes. The cost of barrels varies from 

 $79.80 to $205.45, from which column we 

 may judge to some extent of the output, 

 though there may have been a difference 

 in the price. 



A most interesting column is that for 

 interest on land. This has risen steadily, 

 beginning at $27.45 for 1902 and ending 

 with $45.75 for 1910. Overhead charges 

 also show a tendency to increase. The 

 year 1902 shows labor absorbing $339.45. 

 and this has been greatly reduced. The 



