STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. g^ 



Professor's estimate, there would be 440 barrels of apples tot he 

 acre. Now if a farmer in Maine had had an orchard yielding such 

 a product, he would have sold it at five dollars a barrel, realizing 

 no less than $2,200 to the acre, and five such acres would have 

 made him rich, securing to himself and his family easy circum- 

 stances for the rest of his life. 



The exhibit made by this orchard gives the startling answer to 

 our question, that if it were here, and could be kept up to the 

 product, and always realize this year's prices it would be worth 

 more than $10,000 an acre, even $20,000. But last year was an 

 unusual year for the Apple in Michigan. And yet, assuming the 

 average of years to be one-half the product stated, at our prices 

 for this year, the result is still startling. Or even if we assume 

 this average at half the present market price, the cash returns far 

 surpass the product of most branches of business. One-half of 

 the estimated product, at half of this year's prices, would yield 

 six hundred dollars to the acre. The coincidence of a full product 

 in a given district, with high prices, arising from a failure of the 

 crop in other districts, is likely to occur to the. skilful and vigilant 

 orchardist, at least once or twice, perhaps several times, in his life. 

 When this does happen, the proprietor of large orchards, yielding 

 maximum results, finds himself suddenly rich. 



But these instances are not to be cited as proofs of annual pro- 

 ducts. The last year's history of Mr. Fisher's orchard at Wood- 

 stock, to which allusion has been made, though less striking, is 

 perhaps, more instructive. And it has the advantage, that the 

 exact cash product is known. And let us again try the question 

 by the test of that orchard, trusting that no one will be startled 

 by the declaration that a good Apple Orchard is worth $1000 an 

 acre. It was leased at $300 a year. The product last year was 

 two hundred and ten bushels, sold at St. John at five dollars a 

 barrel, making $1,050. Sufficient, with the refuse apples, no 

 doubt, to defray the expense of the freight and of the sale, and 

 leave one thousand dollars as the cash value of the crop on the 

 farm. This orchard, though young, seems by the account to con- 

 sist of many trees very thickly planted, and their productive 

 capacity may now be nearly equal to that of a full grown orchard 

 planted with trees two rods asunder each way. 



We can deduce the satisfactory conclusion that a product me- 

 dium in quantity and price, a few years hence, would leave for net 

 profits two hundred dollars a year to the acre. This brings us 



