20 IMPROVED Vv. UNIMPROVED LAND 
If the rancher does all the work himself, or if he is a 
bachelor without a family, he may reduce the above 
expenses by about $1,300, thus bringing the prime cost 
down to about $3,750. So that, on the whole, putting 
the price of land and the cost of clearing it together, as I 
have done above, at $200 per acre, I should consider 
that a man buying 10 acres would require a capital of 
£700 to £1,200 all told, if he is to carry along com- 
fortably and safely until his orchard begins to bear 
consistently in the sixth year. This estimate makes 
all due allowance for crops grown between the trees 
during the second, third, fourth, and fifth years, but 
allows nothing for timber sold off the land, nothing for 
produce of the soil the first year, nothing for money 
earned in the owner’s spare time. On the other hand, 
it does include cost of living for a small family for the 
first two years, the Government tax for the first five 
years, proceeds from poultry during every year of the 
five, and, of course, all the various items enumerated 
just above. 
Taxation.— As a fruit-rancher, the orchard-owner 
pays only one tax and no rates whatever. The tax 
is a levy of 4 per cent. upon the assessed value (say 
80 per cent. of the actual market value) of his real 
property, with a 10 per cent. discount for prompt 
payment. 
IRRIGATION CHARGES.—To the items of expenditure 
just enumerated must be added the tax for irrigation 
water if the ranch is selected in an irrigation district. 
This will amount to $2.50 to $5 per acre, or $25 to $50 
per annum ; so that in the course of the five years the 
