128 The Commercial Apple Industry 



clusively to apple-growing, the selection of a more general 

 farm in a recognized apple section where land values are 

 not too high, will afford an opportunity of gradually work- 

 ing into the apple industry. A small bearing orchard 

 would serve as a nucleus and the returns from it could be 

 used in developing additional plantings. Furthermore, 

 the experience gained from caring for the older orchard 

 would be profitable as a guide for the development of more 

 acreage. A 100- to 200-acre farm with five to twenty 

 acres of well-cared-for apple trees is a good arrangement 

 and one which would have the advantage of safety, better 

 credit and lower interest rates. The farmer's living ex- 

 penses could be secured from the general farm land, leav- 

 ing him independent of his apple crop in years of failure. 



Labor conditions. 



Labor conditions may affect greatly the advisability of 

 choosing a fruit-farm in certain localities. Labor costs 

 in some instances exceed 50 per cent of the total cost of 

 producing apples, exclusive of interest on investments. 

 Much of this labor is performed by the grower himself, 

 although at harvest time and with such intensive opera- 

 tions as spraying and thinning, the character and price 

 of available labor is very important. A study of the scale 

 of wages for orchard labor reveals a disparagement of 50 

 per cent between different regions. Beginning with the 

 low wage scale in southern states, labor rates increase 

 and are at their highest in the Northwest. 



The amount of work done in a day enters into all cal- 

 culations and cheap labor may be the most expensive 

 in the end. For example, the average picker in the North- 

 west picks about twice as many apples as the average 



