Cost of Production 363 



acre cost is only $223.58, but there is an exceedingly high 

 cost of $1.94 a box. In other words, the lowest yielding 

 orchards have an acre cost of $189.40, less than the highest 

 yielding ones, but a box cost of $1.006 more. A saving 

 of $1.00 a box is not only secured by the highest yield, 

 but the profits are swelled since this saving of $1.00 a box 

 applies to 440 boxes an acre instead of 115. By compar- 

 ing the yield in boxes in the first column with the total 

 cost a box in the last, the importance of yields is most 

 forcibly brought out. 



Attention has been drawn to the fact that with yields 

 averaging 440 boxes an acre, apples are produced in Hood 

 River at a cost of $1.006 a box less than when the yields 

 were only 115 boxes an acre. The handling and material 

 costs for boxes, and the like, increased almost directly with 

 the yield, so there is little saving on a box in these items. 

 However, in the maintenance costs such as pruning, spray- 

 ing, thinning, and in the fixed costs such as interest on 

 investment, the greatest saving a box is effected for fixed 

 costs an acre, remain practically the same for all yields. 



In figuring cost of production, so much must be allowed 

 for interest on investment. If an orchardist has an in- 

 vestment of $1,000 an acre, interest on that amount at 7 

 per cent would be $70.00 an acre a year. This cost dis- 

 tributed over 440 boxes would be about 16 cents a box; 

 distributed over 115 boxes an acre this cost would amount 

 to about 61 cents a box. As seen from the above, the fixed 

 costs are the group in which the greatest saving is effected 

 by increased yields. Fixed costs such as interest on in- 

 vestment are too often ignored or overlooked by growers 

 who do not realize that these items very often determine 

 the success or failure of an orchard enterprise. The fixed 



