COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN WESTERN COLORADO. 9 



for sale. In the case of a young orchard the expense necessary to 

 keeping it up is, of course, chargeable to the young orchard and does 

 not enter into the cost of production of apples from a bearing block. 



On the farms situated in Mesa County there is an average of 3.5 

 acres of young apples per ranch as compared to 8.22 acres of bearing 

 apples; in Delta, 4.94 acres young and 12.19 bearing, and in Montrose, 

 3.56 young and 13.66 bearing. Furthermore, but 42 per cent of the 

 farm acreage of the ranches surveyed in the Grand Valley is in bearing 

 apples, 23.5 per cent in Delta, and 31 per cent in Montrose. Ninety- 

 two per cent of the total area of the ranches surveyed in Mesa is 

 tillable, 73 per cent in Delta, and 90 per cent in Montrose. A few 

 farms were found where the cost of operating the farm was the same 

 as the cost of producing the apples from the bearing block. In such 

 cases all labor, both man and horse, is charged to the orchard. 



Under such specialized conditions there are always long periods 

 of enforced idleness for horse labor and often for man labor, espe- 



MONTHS 



HORSE. HOURS 

 10 20 



10 iO 30 



MAN HOURS 

 +0 SO 60 10 80 9( 



100 HO 



JAN, 



1 









FEB. 

 MAR. 



j, 











APR. 









t 



MAY 











JUN. 











JUL. 











AUG 

 SEP. 

 OCT. 

 NOV. 



■ 



















DEC. 



1 



■ 







Fig. 3.— Chart showing the average distribution of man and horse 

 labor on an acre of bearing orchard throughout the year. 



daily where help is hired by the month. By growing alfalfa or annual 

 crops adapted to the region, together with hogs or poultry, a more 

 profitable distribution of labor may be secured. 



SIZE AND TYPE OF FARM. 



Table III shows the average size, tillable area, and orchard acreage 

 of the farms studied. The fact that these farms in most cases are 

 small is principally due to the system of land development. In 

 many cases land was bought up, set to fruit, and held for speculation 

 at prices such that the average investor desiring a home could not 

 afford to buy many acres. In fact, it was believed more desirable to 

 have a small, intensive, specialized farm than a larger and more 

 diversified one. In days of high fruit prices this belief was justifiable 

 for the time being, but no provision was made for the day of low 

 fruit prices. 



