26 



EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 



Each orchardist must organize his spraying procedure in line with 

 the size of his orchard and his available equipment and labor. The stand- 

 ards in Table 5 are suggested as guides to help the orchardist in working 

 out his procedure. These standards are based on the data from the 40 

 farms, but also take into account improved practices found on farms 

 that are better organized. They are suggested as standards which should 

 be accomplished under good management and under fairly favorable 

 conditions. Real efficiency in spraying, of course, would be related to 

 effectiveness of control and with the most economical combination of 

 men and machines as well as size of machines. 



COST OF SPRAYING 

 Material 



There was considerable uniformity in the spray formulas used; 

 therefore, a similarity in the cost of spray material per tree would be 

 expected. However, because some operators used over four times as 

 many gallons of spray as others, the cost varied greatly. Four orchardists 

 reported less than two cents per bushel of apples (expected yield) while 

 seven reported over six cents. Two who reported costs over 10 cents 

 a box used special sprays. (Figure 23.) Based upon the data from the 

 40 orchards and the experience and recommendations of the Agricultu- 

 ral Experiment Station, it is thought that five to seven cents per bushel 

 will furnish material for spraying. 



The equipment 



Because trees are growing in size and increasing in yielding capacity, 

 the orchard is continually changing in size. In addition, some operators 

 have filler trees and may take out many of these in some one year. Con- 

 sequently, the spray outfit may be about the right size for an orchard one 



MAN HOURS 

 1.6 



1.4 



1.2 



1.0 



.8 



.2 



111 



LARGE 



MEDIUM 



SMALL 



Figure 17. — Average season man hours per mature tree equivalent 

 in spraying by large, medium, and small machines 



