66 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 257 



equivalent to increase in inventory of trees. So in each ease in this 

 study, the appreciation or depreciation of trees was added to or sub- 

 tracted from the cost of production, and the comparison in Table 28 

 is on that basis. 



Since the credit for growth of trees represents about 13 per cent, 

 of the total expense, it might be roughly estimated that 87 per cent.! 

 of the expense went for apple production and 13 per cent, for growth 

 cf trees. When this rather rough M'ay of dividing production of 

 apples and production of tree is made, the situation between the dif- 

 ferent orchards is made more comparable when considering costs, on a 

 basis of normal or actual yields. For instance, in the case of Farm 3. 

 about 60 per cent, of the energy has gone into the tree and only 40 

 per cent, into production of apples. 



When the total cost of producing apples is computed according to 

 normal expected yield, the costs vary from $107 on Farm 6 to $894 on 

 Farm 4 per 1,000 boxes. Five farms had costs over .$500, four be- 

 tween $300 and $500, and three below $300 per 1,000 boxes. 



In the same way, when computed on basis of actual yields, the range 

 is from $121 per 1,000 boxes to $770 per 1,000 boxes. Four farms 

 have costs above $500, five farms have costs between $300 and $500, 

 and three have costs below $200. The two low-cost producers have 

 been credited with rather large amounts for increase in value of trees. 

 Since these particular men were producing the trees economically, any 

 margins in their costs of production and the value as shown in inven- 

 tory tend to lower the cost. In the case of Farm 8, an expense of 

 $1,909 produced 7,265 boxes of apples, and also tree growth valued 

 at over $1,000. If one credits the tree growth to the cost of pro- 

 ducing apples, the apples cost about $228 per 1,000 boxes; but if the 

 value of the apples were credited to the cost of growing more trees, 

 the trees were produced for nothing. 



No doubt some part of the miscellaneous overhead should be charged 

 against the production of apples up to harvest. On seven farms, the 

 total time on miscellaneous work was about equal to the total time on 

 apple orchards up to harvest. But since we are using these costs 

 merely for comparison in study of management problems, it would be 

 very artificial to attempt to allocate the overhead. This part of the 

 problem will receive further consideration in later pul)lications on 

 farm orchard organization. 



HARVESTING APPLES 



On all farms, an average of 358 hours per 1,000 boxes actual yield 

 was required in harvesting. 



On three farms, Nos. 5, 10 and 12, over 400 man hours were re- 

 quired to harvest 1,000 boxes. On eight farms between 300 and 400 

 hours were needed. On one farm — No. 1 — less tlian 300 man hours 

 per 1,000 boxes were used (Table 29). 



This includes both picking and in most cases hauling to the barn. 

 Certain lots of apples were hauled direct from the orchard by pur- 

 chaser. There was considerable difference between years on the same 

 farm, due probably to the differences in the crop. For the large crop 



