PROFITS IX APPLE CULTURE. 67 



mark, a superior and uniform quality of fruit is sold. 

 The following figures represent actual crop sales from 

 a large orchard : In 1877, the crop sold for $3 per 

 barrel; in 1878, $2.75 and $3; in 1879, $3; 1880, 

 12, $3.50 and $3; 1881, $2.75 and $3.50; 1882, $3. 

 These figures do not include the culls and cider apples, 

 which were either sold to applicants from local markets 

 or were made into cider or vinegar. It will be observed 

 that the prices averaged about the same for each year. 

 These are not jirices made to a few local customers, but 

 the crop was put upon the city market, where it com- 

 peted with other fruit. It was placed in the hands of 

 competent dealers, however, who were acquainted with 

 the merits of the fruit. Tiie prices are for barrels hold- 

 ing two and tliree-quarter bushels. This orchard is upon 

 land worth $G0 an acre, and it will return more money 

 from apples at twenty-five cents a bushel than from 

 wheat at $1 a bushel, although it is in a good wheat 

 country. "Leroy," in a recent Philadelphia "Press," 

 makes the following comment upon a very ordinary apple 

 tree: "A prolific tree ol salable apples brings much 

 more money from the ground it occupies than would 

 most farm crops. On a medium sized tree thirty years 

 old the owner has every year sold eight to twelve or more 

 bushels of fruit. This year the crop was eleven bushels 

 and sold readily at fifty cents a bushel, or $5.50. Assum- 

 ing that the tree occupies fully four square rods of ground, 

 which it does not, here are $220 an acre for a single year's 

 product. This is more than the land itself is worth. 

 Eeally, this sum, after deducting a small amount for ex- 

 penses, represents the interest on the amount which an 



