ORCHARDING ON NEW ENGLAND HILL FARMS 89 



we take two "off" years and one good year. Just here 

 let me remind you that an apple orchard in New England 

 does not get to full bearing until it has been planted 25 

 or 30 years. At this age, with proper care, it should 

 continue producing profitable crops for the next 40 or 50 

 years, in many cases much longer. 



In making my estimate of the cost of growing the fruit, 

 you have probably noticed that two very important items 

 have been left out, — the cost of spraying and of thinning 

 the fruit. Both were omitted for the reason that very 

 few apple orchards in Massachusetts are either sprayed or 

 have the fruit thinned. I suspect it is about the same here 

 in Connecticut, and I was afraid to include these two 

 items for fear my figures would be disputed by those who 

 have never practiced one or both of these operations. If 

 I had given their cost I should have been obliged to give 

 also the increase in price at which fruit sells when sprayed 

 and thinned over that of fruit grown in the usual way, and 

 the difference is so great that some might doubt my 

 word. 



The cost of spraying is not so great as those who have 

 never practiced it may think. As near as I can estimate, it 

 has cost me from 2 to 3 cents per tree for each spraying, 

 or from 6 to 9 cents for the season, spraying three times. 

 Thinning a crop of 1,300 barrels in '96 cost 5 cents per 

 barrel, which makes the cost of thinning and spraying a 

 barrel of apples 6 to 9 cents for the season. In any good 

 market the selling price of fruit that has been properly 

 thinned and sprayed is from 50 cents to %\ per barrel 

 more than that of fruit grown in the usual way. 



Spraying increases the yield and makes the quality of 

 fruit better by reducing the per cent of wormy and imper- 

 fect fruit. Thinning removes the wormy and imperfect 

 fruit, and increases the size of what is left to such an ex- 

 tent that I doubt if the yield is at all lessened, while the 

 color and quality of the fruit is much improved. 



The chief hindrance to any great increase in the plant- 

 ing of apple orchards is the belief that they do not pay, 

 which comes from seeing the neglected apple trees found 

 on a large proportion of the farms of this and other states. 



