COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN HOOD RIVER VALLEY. 



15 



THE ORCHARDS. 



SIZE. 



The bearing orchards included in this survey vary in size from 

 3^ acres to 39 acres. In most cases orchards are 10 to 15 acres in 

 size, and the average of all is 12.4 acres. Large farms, as a rule, 

 do not have exceptionaly large orchards. The average farm of 50 

 acres has as large an orchard as the average farm of 100 acres. 



AGE. 



The average age of all the orchards considered is 12 years, the 

 youngest being 9 and the oldest 18 years. All these orchards are con- 

 sidered by their owners to be in full bearing. One noticeable char- 

 acteristic about orchard plantings in this section is the lack of uni- 

 formity as regards age. Many planted their orchards over a series 

 of years, so that the number of bearing blocks of uniform age is 

 limited. 



Table III. — Size of farms and of orchards studied. 



Item. 



Clean 

 cultural. 



Mulch 

 crop. 



All rec- 

 ords. 



Average acreage per farm: 

 Total 



In bearing orchard . . . 

 In young orchard 



Percentage of area tillable 



Bearing orchards: 



Average age 



Trees per acre 



44.22 

 12.25 



7.48 



12.00 

 72.00 



33.50 

 12.70 

 4.69 



12.00 

 72.00 



39.45 

 12.45 

 6.24 



69.10 



12.00 

 72.00 



VARIETIES. 



The varieties of Hood River Valley apples are principally tw< 

 Yellow Newtown and Esopus. The commercial name of the valley 

 has been built up on these apples. Hood River Valley is thus more 

 limited in its number of commercial varieties than any other North- 

 west section. There are, however, about 75 varieties found in the 

 bearing orchards of the valley. Others of commercial importance 

 are Ortly, Monmouth, Ben Davis, Arkansas Black, Arkansas, Jona- 

 than, Rome Beauty, and Gravenstein. Some of these are often 

 planted as pollenizers. Yellow Newtown and Esopus do not come 

 into full bearing as early as Jonathan, Winesap, Rome Beauty, and 

 most other commercial varieties of the Northwest. 



TREES PER ACRE AND METHOD OF SETTING. 



The number of trees per acre in these orchards runs very uniform. 

 In the 54 orchards there is an average of 72 trees per acre, and prac- 

 tically all lie between the limits of 60 and 80. There are many 



