1 68 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



A more certain charge is that for pruning. The problems in pruning 

 are more of the mind than the hand and once the work is laid out it goes 

 along rapidly. An acre-average of $3.00 is sufficient to cover the expense of 

 pruning and thinning may be done, year in and year out, at the same cost. 



The peach-orchard is customarily sprayed but once in New York, 

 an application of the lime-sulphur wash being made to prevent leaf -curl 

 and to destroy San Jose scale. The cost of this single spray cannot be 

 more than $4.00 per acre but to this must be added a charge for protection 

 against mice and rabbits, destruction of borers and cutting out trees 

 infected with yellows or little-peach, averaging, all told, at least $8.00 for 

 keeping under pests. 



The services of a peach-grower are worth more than the time of the 

 men who do the actual labor. It is but fair, then, that an allowance be 

 made for superintending the work. Since a competent orchardist can 

 superintend a farm enterprise of several times the magnitude of a ten-acre 

 orchard, but part can be allowed for superintendence, $300 for the season 

 being a fair price, or $30.00 per acre. 



Picking, grading, packing and hauling are all operations that cost no 

 two men the same for any one. Without attempting to segregate these 

 items an approximation of the total cost of all, based on a considerable amount 

 of data, is $30.00 per acre. This sum does not include the cost of packages. 



This brings us to a summary of the cost sheet in growing the average 

 acre of peaches: 



Interest on investment $20 . 00 



Taxes i . 00 



Depreciation in equipment and interest 20 . 00 



Tillage 10 . 00 



Co\'er-crop seed 2 . 50 



Fertilizers .... 5 ■ 00 



Pruning and thinning 6 . 00 



Keeping pests under .... 8 . 00 



Superintendence 30 . 00 



Picking, grading, packing and hauling 30.00 



§13^.50 



Pushing this calculation further, the cost per tree runs at $1.32^^, there 

 being 100 trees to the acre in the average orchard in the State. Peach- 

 growers expect 150 bushels per acre during the bearing time of the peach, 

 and dividing 132.50 by 150 we have 88^ cents as the average cost, exclusive 



