372 The Commercial Apple Industry 



ACCESSIBILITY TO MAEKET 



Distance and accessibility to shipping point are factors 

 which have an important bearing on the cost of produc- 

 tion. For example, in many sections of Virginia and Car- 

 olina, apples are produced fairly cheap on the trees, but a 

 long haul, often of ten to twenty miles over rough roads, 

 adds very materially to the cost of delivery, f. o. b. ship- 

 ping point. Not infrequently a charge of forty or more 

 cents a barrel must be made to cover the cost of hauling 

 apples to the railroad station. Usually such orchards are 

 situated on low-priced land and have a low overhead 

 charge or fixed cost. For comparison, in Hood Eiver, 

 Oregon, the fixed cost is practically $.31 a box, or $.93 a 

 barrel, while in the mountains of Virginia and Carolina 

 the fixed cost is often not more than one-tenth of this 

 amount. 



While cost of production usually includes only the cost 

 f. o. b. at loading station, to this figure should also be added 

 the cost of delivering the fruit to the consuming markets 

 in order properly to compare one region with another. 



COST OF MATERIALS 



The cost of materials is one of the direct factors to be 

 considered in cost production. The material cost, how- 

 ever, does not vary greatly in different regions and there- 

 fore is scarcely a limiting factor. It is important to rec- 

 ognize, however, that the price of spray material, fertili- 

 zer, barrels and boxes may be lowered materially by 

 cooperation and judicious purchasing. Examples in low- 

 ering the costs by these methods may be found in the apple 

 districts of the Northwest. 



