COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN YAKIMA VALLEY. 9 
convenience. Some keep but one horse, with which most of the 
light work may be done. For heavy work arrangements sometimes 
are made for the use of a neighbor’s horse for short periods. The 
rancher usually keeps a cow, a few pigs, and a small flock of poultry. 
Where the orchards are under mulch-crop management there is a 
tendency to keep a somewhat greater number of such animals. 
Ranches in the Zillah district are comparatively large and more of 
an attempt is made at diversification than in the upper valley, where 
the orchards occupy a larger percentage of the farm acreage. Even 
so the type of farming remains highly specialized and fruit is the 
principal crop. Here is found a greater acreage of pears, cherries, 
and other fruits, and until recent years peaches were grown to a con- 
siderable extent. The Zillah ranches have a larger acreage in young 
fruit than those in the North Yakima district and more land is’ 
devoted to the growing of other crops, particularly alfalfa. The 
typical ranch is of such size that the operator devotes most of his 
time to the work on his own place. In this region there is a growing 
tendency to raise alfalfa in the orchards to be used for hog pasture. 
SIZE OF RANCH. 
The ranches of the North Yakima district are usually small. Of 
_ the 64 considered in this investigation, extreme acreages are 2 and 40. 
Most of the ranches range between 2 and 20 acres insize. Theaverage 
ranch contains 10.79 acres, with 5.18 acres of apples in bearing. 
Neéarly every ranch has a few pear, cherry, and plum trees and a small 
acreage of young apple trees. Nonbearing apples average 3.34 acres 
per ranch. On the average less than one-half acre is devoted to the 
erowing of other crops. (See Table III.) : 
The apple orchard is usually of such size that one man can com- 
fortably do all pruning and look after the necessary operations with 
but little extra help except during the thinning, spraying, and har- 
vesting periods. 
_ Tasie II1.—Average size of ranch and of areas in crops for 64 ranches in the North Yakima 
district. 
Method of culture. 
Item. 
Clean Mulch-crop 
(43 records).|(21 records). 
PAN etal O Ola CheSaitie Ga Cleese ees rari itis ea oe. Sislnlc W ee ied a a len se een ieminclosi sae 11.96 8. 40 
AVeracemilianlemenres vim ranich sche se. ce. fe ae De oes oo cisee ens oe ect 11.7 8. 28 
Average acreage in bearing apple orchard... .. pou bose csouceqsussesbaccapsagccoTs 5. 49 4.52 
Average acreage in young apples and other fruit.............--...----------+----- 5. 90 3. 46 
LOSES BORA ZO TIN OWOEIP OR) USS adc sanoseosessesd bannooGae JsbeuansenoccEscosecse 38 30 
MULAN QOReS: SPAN Sanacceudes ooadsoaseceesesno ness auaadunuecuosauoooodoeode 5. 75 4.81 
The 56 ranches in the Zillah district considered in this investigation 
are somewhat larger than those in North Yakima, ranging from 8 to 
60 acres. The average size is 21.57 acres, with 7.77 acres in bearing 
