22 BULLETIN 29, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMY IN ORCHARD MANAGEMENT. 



The most difficult problem for the farm manager is to determine 

 where to spend more in the line of operations and where to spend 

 less in order to increase net profits. 



Land, of course, is a fixed expense expected to be paid for at the 

 outset on the advantages of soil, weather conditions, topography, and 

 distance from shipping point. The statement of costs already given 

 ought to furnish a good basis for calculating the amount which the 

 purchaser of orchard lands can afford to pay. It is very easy to 

 pay an amount that would make it practically impossible to make 

 the proposition profitable, no matter what economy might be used 

 in operation. 



Many good orchardists economize on buildings. This may be done 

 with profit in those cases where the buildings for board and lodging, 

 cottages for farmers, and stables for stock are summer quarters only. 

 Packing sheds may be constructed at very little expense also, if 

 regarded as temporary. If the site, however, is to be the home of 

 the manager and foreman the year round, then the buildings must be 

 constructed for home purposes and will cost much more. Barns and 

 other outbuildings would also need to be constructed accordingly. 



Two items of greatest expense on the thinner soils are cultivation 

 and fertilization. Probably the great majority of orchardists cut 

 down mostly on these items. No special data are yet available to 

 prove positively that this policy is not wise. The orchard reporting 

 the largest yields and highest average price for fruit, however, is one 

 that follows the practice of clean cultivation and that fertilizes the 

 land liberally at a cost of from $5.25 to $6.25 per acre. On the whole, 

 the most promising orchards on the smooth, thin lands are those 

 receiving the most thorough cultivation and fertilization. The 

 economic value of nitrogen applied to peach orchards has long been 

 known, and recent experiments in some of these orchards have 

 verified these conclusions beyond a doubt. Both cultivation and the 

 application of fertilizer are a means of controlling moisture and of 

 building up the soil. This in most cases sustains and makes profitable 

 a future apple orchard. 



Some of the orchards on which the yields have been stated have 

 had little expense put on them for spraying. Such orchards are 

 found located on chert land high up on the mountains. These in 

 some cases have not had a bad crop record, but the owners are con- 

 vinced that they must begin to spray, since fungous diseases injure 

 the quality of the peaches to a large extent and the curculio is also 

 increasing its ravages on such land. 



While the cost of spraying is a large item in the expense account 

 it is one of those items which may be expected to directly increase the 



