ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 207 



every year, as readily as every other year. If the conditions are 

 right for the trees to bear every year, they will bear every year, 

 as well as they now bear every other year. These conditions it 

 is our business to supply, and it is the tree's functions to give us 

 the fruit every year, and the trees will do their part, if we do 

 ours. Nature through the soil never fails to do her part, if man 

 does his. This is true of all crops. 



The conditions for annual apple crops are : a well drained 

 soil, a liberal feeding of the soil, spraying the trees to keep up 

 a healthy foliage, frequent stirring of the soil to maintain mois- 

 ture throughout the season, and thinning the fruit that the trees 

 shall not overbear. If these rules are strictly followed, as every 

 thorough orchardist should do, an annual crop is assured, pro- 

 vided a spring frost or blasting eastern storm does not come 

 when the trees are in blossom. 



Now as we have an orchard grown into bearing age, we will 

 next see what the cost per year is to be, to grow our crop of 

 apples ready for picking. My estimate is as follows : 



Fertilizer, one ton $30.00 



Harrowing and cultivating, 10 times 15.00 



Spraying. 3 times 15.00 



Pruning 5.00 



Thinning fruit 10.00 



$75.00 



The cost of picking, boxes, barrels, marketing, etc., would 

 have to be added to this, which would, perhaps, add $100 more, 

 or $175 for the acre. The lowest estimate of prices for such 

 well grown apples would be' $1.50 per barrel, for 405 barrels 

 from the acre would leave $432 profit from the acre, or if at 

 $3 per barrel, as they often bring, $1,040 profit per acre. The 

 cost per acre would be lessened somewhat in proportion to the 

 number of acres we had to care for. The cultivating, spraying, 

 etc., would be less per acre for ten or twentv acres than for one 

 acre. 



Now that I have grown this orchard into bearing age, another 

 very important matter for profit confronts us. viz., the putting 

 up and marketing of the fruit. It is one thing to grow the fruit 

 well, but to derive a handsome profit for the labor involved, it 

 requires much taste and care in packing and marketing it. If 



