Absentee Orcharding 27 



ness and which has been grown and cared for by others; 

 but if the plantation has good care, in most cases it will 

 be because the owner maintains a complete establishment 

 of work animals, tools and men and does not depend on 

 the hiring of the work from neighboring farmers. This 

 means a general farming business. The costs accumulate 

 rapidly, and the risks are heavy. The contingencies and 

 difficulties are more than anyone can foresee. It is a com- 

 mon opinion that the tilled crops from the orchard land 

 will pay for the care of the orchard until it comes into 

 bearing, but this is seldom true (if the orchard receives 

 good care) and then only when this cropping is part of a 

 good farm scheme and does not depend on fugitive hired 

 labor. Purchasers should be careful of orchard land-schemes 

 in which the work and oversight are all provided for in 

 advance. Orcharding by others is rarely profitable. 



The annual cost of the care of an orchard for the first 

 five years, including first cost of trees, pruning, fertilizing, 

 tilling, cover-cropping, interest on moderate-priced land, 

 may be expected to run from $25 to $30 an acre if one has 

 his own equipment and does the work well. 



Cost-accounting. 



A well-organized business plan calls for a system of 

 keeping account of costs, founded on an annual inventory 

 and an analysis of the labor of men and teams and ma- 

 chinery on each crop or for each part of the plantation, 

 the general outlays, and the receipts. A daily work- 

 report is necessary. The elaborate bookkeeping forms 

 often devised for farmers' use should be avoided. It is 

 more important to analyze the business than to keep a 

 perfect set of- books. Most of the bookkeeping blanks do 

 not bring out the facts that the farmer needs. Warren 



