88 THE COMNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



With trees planted 40 feet apart each way, we have 27 

 trees to the acre; reckoning the yield at ij^ barrels to the 

 tree gives 40 j^ barrels to the acre, which, at $1.05 per 

 barrel, gives $42.52. Deducting $2 for plowing, $3 for 

 cultivating four times, $2.25 for fertilizers and sowing, 

 1^1.50 for pruning, makes the cost of cultivation and 

 fertilization $8.75 per acre, which, taken from $42.52, leaves 

 $33.77 above cost of growing and getting the crop of one 

 acre to the cars, which is 10 per cent on an investment 



of $337-7o- 



I will state here that I have used in my orchard a fer- 

 tilizer made of high-grade sulphate of potash and South 

 Carolina rock-phosphate, mixed at the rate of one pound 

 of potash to two pounds of phosphate, which makes a 

 fertilizer costing about $25 per ton. I use from 4 to 6 

 pounds of this to a tree. This may seem a small amount 

 to apply to an acre of land ; but when we remember that 

 a barrel of apples contains less than 5 ounces of potash 

 and less than one ounce of phosphoric acid, it is plain 

 that, with an annual dressing of the quantity given, the 

 soil is not growing poorer. I consider a fair annual dress- 

 ing better than a larger quantity applied at longer intervals. 

 Without taking the time to calculate the cost of growing 

 an acre of orchard to bearing age, I will leave it to your 

 good judgment whether an acre of orchard can be grown 

 to bearing age for $337.70. 



S. D. Willard, in his talk at the winter meeting of 

 the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, held at 

 Amherst, Mass., last December, said that good apple 

 orchards in New York state were valued at from $200 to 

 $1,000 per acre, and that desirable orchards were not for 

 sale. 



Some may say that the cost of producing the crop has 

 been placed too low. I would answer that the price of 

 the fruit and the yield has been put correspondingly low, 

 in proof of which I will add that a part of my orchard, 

 set 20 years ago and covering some 13 acres, produced in 

 1896 1,300 barrels of apple's; in 1897 it produced 300 bar- 

 rels, and in 1898 500 barrels, — an average of 700 barrels a 

 year or 54 barrels to the acre, and an average given when 



