University of New Hampshire 



[Sta. Bull. 323 



(•haii<2:inp: proportion over most of tlie loiip: production pei-iod. In the 

 initial stages activities are centered on growing trees. In the early bear- 

 ing stages the emphasis is .still largely on developing the trees, but over 

 a long period the production of fruit gradually becomes the dominant ob- 

 jective. Tn the fiiuil stage the operator's attention is absorbed in getting 

 as much jiroduction from the old tree as is pi-actical. At the end of its 

 commercial life the tree is valueless for fruit production. 



Whenever joint products emerge from a production jjioctss the prob- 

 lem of studj'ing management becomes complicated. In the case of apples 

 an understanding is made difficult by the long period of 40 to 60 years in 

 the life of the apple tree. If we had an orchard of 60 acres in which acre 

 age groups from 1 to 60 years were represented, and if each year an 

 acre of the oldest trees were replaced by new plantings, the problim in 

 any one year would indicate more accurately certain phases of llic real 

 situation faced by a producer in planting a large new orchard. And yet 

 this would not be a true cross section becau.se starting witli a newly-set 

 orchai-d the operator experiences the long period of waiting for an in- 

 come and his operations are constantly expanding as the trees grow. 



In exploi'ing the pi'oblems of fruit ])roduction it seemed wise to carry 

 the orchard through its life cycle without arbitrarily .setting an age limit 

 representing the growth of the trees as a production factor. Due to the 

 long period involved, a budget type of analysis appeared to be the most 

 I)i-actical approach. 



The tirst step was to organize the data to indicate Ihe inputs for each 

 year through the entire life cycle. Several orchards had been set out 

 during the period of observation and the data available were carefully 

 checked as to possible improvements in method. Records were available 

 on orchards at other stages. These were adjusted on the basis of im- 

 provements in methods and then used as a background for estimating 

 the cost for each year. The resulting curves representing inputs at each 



Hours of Labor 



Settin* 

 625.- — 



10 



15 



20 



45 



50 



35 



25 30 35 40 



Age. of Tccti 



Figure 1.- Horus ok T>ai!ok I'ki: lood Tkkks KKciiiuKD Each Year 

 ON Various Okchard Ui'Eratio.ns, .\ot Inci.idi.nc; Hakvksting. 



60 



