Cost of production of apples, payette valley, tdaho. 18 



extensively and that are now found largely in the older orchards are 

 Baldwin, Wealthy, Wolf River, Lawver, Arkansas, Missouri, York 

 Imperial, and many fall varieties. There are a few varieties which 

 are found in smaller numbers but which are popular commercially. 

 Among these are White Pearmain, Delicious, and StaymanWinesap. 

 The Ben Davis, although found in many orchards throughout the 

 valley, is no longer being planted and is seldom found in orchards 

 under 10 years of age. (See fig. 6.) 



METHOD OF SETTING. 



The trees are set by various methods. Usually either the square 

 or diagonal method is used. A popular distance is 28 by 28 feet on 

 the diagonal, but the older orchards are set by all methods, and the 

 trees are all distances apart. The trees per acre vary between the 

 limits of 50 and 90, the average for the farms studied being 63. 



YIELDS. 



The yields of the orchards studied in Payette Valley are fairly uni- 

 form. In arriving at these results the yield was secured for a period 

 of five years, including seasons of both light and heavy yields, thus 

 giving a fair average. It was found that in the case of the clean- 

 cultural orchards there is a yield of 336 packed boxes per acre and in 

 the mulch-crop orchards a yield of 338 per acre, making 5.7 boxes 

 per tree in the clean and 5.1 boxes in the mulch crop, there being 

 about eight more trees per acre in the mulch-crop orchards. (See 

 Table III.) 



Many factors influence the yield — the number of trees per acre, the 

 variety, size, and age of trees, size of orchard, the amount of pruning, 

 thinning, and propping practiced, the percentage of marketable fruit, 

 etc. Generally speaking, the smaller the orchard the larger the yield 

 per acre. On account of the relatively small number of orchards 

 which were available in this region, no definite conclusions can be 

 reached in this regard. 



- Table III. — Packed-box yields on farms studied in Payette Valley, Idaho. 



Orchard management. 



Number 



of 

 orchards. 



Size of 

 orchard. 



Age of 

 orchard. 



Trees 

 per acre. 



Yield 

 per acre. 



Yield 

 per tree. 



Clean-cultural 



16 

 22 



Acres. 

 13.56 

 9.70 



Years. 

 14.25 

 15.18 



58.6 

 66.8 



Packed 

 boxes. 

 336 

 338 



Packed 

 boxes. 

 5.7 





5.1 









38 



11.33 



14.79 



63.3 



337 



5 3 







The age of the orchard has little apparent effect on the yield after 

 the trees reach 10 years of age. The Jonathan variety comes into 

 bearing at a comparatively early age, as does also the Winesap. 



In addition to the packed-box yield of 337 boxes for all orchards 

 studied, there is also a considerable yield of culled fruit, which is not 

 considered in the discussion of yields, though credited to the orchard. 



