UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



SW^'^mTU 



BULLETIN No. 851 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY. 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management. 

 H. C. TAYLOR, Chief. 



Washington, D. C. 



July 30, 1920 



COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN FIVE COUNTIES 

 IN WESTERN NEW YORK 1910-1915. 



By G. H. Miller, Assistant Agriculturist. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Summary of results 3 



Labor 4 



Farm investment 5 



Farm organization 7 



The orchards 9 



Page. 



Orchard management 12 



Handling the crop 29 



Summary of costs 39 



Influence of yield per acre on cost 



per barrel 43 



Prices received for fruit 46 



INTRODUCTION. 



The western New York fruit belt is the oldest commercial apple- 

 growing district in the United States. Few other regions in America 

 have had the benefit of the experience of former generations in the 

 production of apples. Thus, among 218 apple growers upon whose 

 experience this bulletin is based, there are men who have orchards 

 30 to 60 years of age, as well as those who have recently planted 

 young orchards. 



In this region the apple orchard is only a part of the farm busi- 

 ness, other fruits and such crops as beans, potatoes, and hay being 

 extensively grown. This bulletin treats of the relation the orchard 

 bears to these other enterprises, of the orchard practices followed by 

 the more successful growers, the effect of these practices on yields, 

 the returns derived from different systems of orchard management, 

 and the cost of maintaining orchards under each system. 1 Detailed 



Note. — Acknowledgment is due to the Office of Horticultural and Pomological In- 

 vestigations of the Bureau of riant, Industry for material assistance in the preparation 

 of this bulletin ; also to Messrs. S. M. Thomson and J. C. Folger, who aided in securing 

 the necessary data. 



162274°— 20— Bull. 851 1 



