22 BULLETIN 29, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMY IN ORCHARD MANAGEMENT. 
The most difficult problem for the farm manager is to determine 
where to spend more in the line of operations and where to spend 
less in order to increase net profits. 
Land, of course, is a fixed expense expected to be paid for at the 
outset on the advantages of soil, weather conditions, topography, and 
distance from shipping point. The statement of costs already given 
ought to furnish a good basis for calculating the amount which the 
purchaser of orchard lands can afford to pay. It is very easy to 
pay an amount that would make it practically impossible to make | 
the proposition profitable, no matter what economy might be used 
in operation. 
Many good orchardists economize on buildings. This may be done 
with profit in those cases where the buildings for board and lodging, 
cottages for farmers, and stables for stock are summer quarters only. 
Packing sheds may be constructed at very little expense also, if 
regarded as temporary. If the site, however, is to be the home of 
the manager and foreman the year round, then the buildings must be 
constructed for home purposes and will cost much more. Barns and 
other outbuildings would also need to be constructed accordingly. 
Two items of greatest expense on the thinner souls are cultivation 
and fertilization. Probably the great majority of orchardists cut 
down mostly on these items. No special data are yet available to 
prove positively that this policy is not wise. The orchard reporting 
the largest yields and highest average price for fruit, however, is one 
that follows the practice of clean cultivation and that fertilizes the 
land liberally at a cost of from $5.25 to $6.25 per acre. On the whole, 
the most promising orchards on the smooth, thin lands are those 
receiving the most thorough cultivation and fertilization. The 
economic value of nitrogen applied to peach orchards has long been 
known, and recent experiments in some of these orchards have 
verified these conclusions beyond a doubt. Both cultivation and the 
application of fertilizer are a means of controlling moisture and of 
building up the soil. This in most cases sustains and makes profitable 
a future apple orchard. 
Some of the orchards on which the yields have been stated have 
had little expense put on them for spraymg. Such orchards are 
found located on chert land high up on the mountains. These in 
some cases have not had a bad crop record, but the owners are con- 
vinced that they must begin to spray, since fungous diseases Injure 
the quality of the peaches to a large extent and the curculio is also 
increasing its ravages on such land. 
While the cost of spraying is a large item in the expense account 
it is one of those items which may be expected to directly increase the 
