4 N. II. Agricultural Expkriment Station [Bulletin 257 



by the long life cycle of the apple tree. In llie development of these 

 larger eoinmereial oreliards. ])rol)lenis dealing with pest control and 

 culture continued to be the chief interest of the operator, and the 

 question of the economies of oreluirding received scant attention. The 

 survey in 1925 of commercial apple orchards of New England indi- 

 cated a greatly increased commercial production of apples in the near 

 future. This, with strenuous competition from othci" sections, might 

 be expected to lead to lowei- margins between the New England Mcin- 

 tosh and other apples. The need for fundamental studies of the eco- 

 nomics of apple orcharding was obvious. 



The apple sections of the United States have been located and de- 

 veloped by a trial and error method. We are now in the midst of 

 abandoning the more unfavorable sites and expanding on the more 

 favorable ones. In New Hampshire, soil, climatic and other factors 

 appear favoral)]e; in recent years there have been few crop failures, 

 and production has shown no large fluctuations. However, it is im- 

 portant to obtain a better understanding of the economics of produc- 

 tion to determine accurately whether growers here may be able to com- 

 pete successfully with those of other sections and possibly to determine 

 those methods by which they may best hold and exi)and the incbistry 

 in the face of strenuous competition. 



STUDY UNDERTAKEN AND PLANS 



For a period of three years a detailed and intimate study has been 

 made of twelve representative fruit farms in order to study manage- 

 ment problems, to analyze costs of fruit production under normal con- 

 ditions, to see how far the economies of modern orcharding have ex- 

 tended to the fruit farms of the state and to project from the study an 

 analysis and to recommend management procedure. Ten farms weri' 

 studied in 1926, twelve in 1927 and nine in 1928. A detailed map was 

 made of each farm showing location of orchards and fields. An in- 

 ventory of trees, classified as to age, variety and type (whether per- 

 manent, semi-permanent or filler), was made for each orchard. 



Practically all of the fields were irregular in outline, but the trees 

 were planted fairly regularly in squares. Hence, it was found that 

 an accurate map could be made using cross-section paper, starting at 

 one corner of the orchard and checking in each tree around the border, 

 coming back to the original tree from which the start was made. If 

 varieties were mixed without definite pattern or if there were a large 

 number of younger replanted trees, or missing trees, each tree in the 

 wliole orchard was checked in individually. 



Farms Selected 



Orchards were selected for the study which were more or less repre- 

 sentative of groups or types. It might be stated, for instance, that 

 Orchard 7 with more tlian 4, ()()() trees is representative of the large 

 or(;hai'ds that have no otluM- enterprise in combination, while Orchard 

 2 repivsents the smaller group of large orchards that have other enter- 

 prises in combination. Orchards 1, 4 and 5 are medium-sized orchards 

 that have other enterprises, the first mentioned having beans and po- 

 tatoes, the second, strawbcri'ies, and the third, poultry. Orchards 8 



