gg STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



down from the clouds, and we may proceed to estimate from rea- 

 sonable data illustrated by this case. 



Suppose then, an apple orchard planted at the distance of two 

 rods ; this gives four square rods to the tree and forty trees to the 

 acre. With proper treatment throughout, these trees at the age 

 of fifteen years should yield from three to five barrels a year ; aud 

 by continuous culture, they should within a few years afterwards, 

 run up to the permanent average of five barrels, and ultimately go 

 beyond. 



Now five barrels to the tree, at two dollars a barrel, four barrels 

 at two dollars and a half, or three barrels at three and one-third 

 dollars, give ten dollars to the tree and four hundred dollars an 

 acre. 



And what says the past as to prices^ ? Mr. Boardman's Survey 

 of the Agriculture and Industry of Kennebec county was pub- 

 lished in the report of the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture 

 for the year 1867. In that essay speaking of the orchard of Mr. 

 Pope, the author says, that gentlemen in 1856 sold apples for $4 

 and $4 50 a barrel^ first quality. Some of us, who at that era, 

 had half a dozen young mouths to fill, may retain a feeling remem- 

 brance of prices paid at two and three dollars and upwards for 

 apples, of so called first quality, more properly called half refuse. 



In the same work the author gives Mr. Smiley's account of sales 

 of his apples for 1863, 1864, 1865 and 1866. In 1863 the average 

 of the price obtained for his merchantable apples was $2.51 ; in 

 1864, $3.25; in 1865, $6.04; in 1866, $4.17. Assuming these to 

 be the average of prices during those years, we have an average 

 of $3.99| for the whole period of those years. It is safe to say 

 that the average of prices for the whole period since 1866, is not 

 much if any less. Even in 1872, with the abundant apple harvest 

 of that year, at home and abroad, those who held their apples till 

 the market was settled, obtained three dollars and upwards; and 

 in the winter and spring the retail price rose to $5.00 and $5.25, 

 as it is at the present moment. Prices have been steadily rising. 

 The value of orchard crops in Maine by the census of 1850, was 

 $342,865.00 ; by that of 1870, $874,569.00 ; more than two and a 

 half times that of 1850, and about one and three-fourths of that of 

 1860. It is at least questionable whether there was as much 

 bearing wood in the State during the decade next preceding 1870 

 as that next preceding 1850, and it is certain that the increase of 

 the estimated value of orchard products, more than two aud a half 



