FARM MANAGEMENT IN THE PROVO AREA. 37 
far as possible on concentrated products of a high value for their 
bulk. In former years when little but beef, mutton, and wool was 
shipped from the State, the conditions of the market were quite fully 
met. The possibility of a greater dependence on beef has been indi- 
cated. Should an extension of the canning industry give a good mar- 
ket for certain crops in the Provo area the situation of the farm oper- 
ator will be much improved. The same will result if the creamery 
business undergoes the expansion which its friends anticipate. 
In either instance the opportunity for diversification in this area 
would be much greater than at present. In the first case crops of a 
relatively high value per acre can be grown ; to a considerable degree 
the labor on them will be noncompetitive with labor on enterprises 
now followed; and within reasonable limits the regular labor at 
present only partly occupied can attend to all but the harvesting. In 
the absence of this opportunity possibilities of diversification with 
the present range of farm enterprises should receive careful atten- 
tion. A valuable means to this end would be offered by an expansion 
of the creamery business, and along lines largely noncompetitive 
with the current activities on most farms where a dairy herd or an 
enlargement of the existing herd will prove practicable. 
The larger orchardists who place considerable reliance on general 
crops are more favorably situated, particularly those who have only 
limited areas of peaches and depend more on the other tree fruits, 
which give better returns. A factor of no small importance in this 
result is the lower harvesting cost of these fruits.^ But the operator 
who utilizes orchard enterprises as an important though not the 
primary activity, or as a filler to round out the business as a whole, 
is the one whose system more nearly fits the existing conditions in 
this region. This would seem to be the only system on which fruit 
of any kind should be produced by the great majority of Utah 
growers. The man with a special market for his product or the oc- 
casional orchardist of unusual ability, particularly when he grows 
the more profitable fruits, perhaps can afford to concentrate on 
orchard enterprises, but he takes a gambler's risk. A man with 
small or moderate capital can not afford to run such a chance. 
TOWN-DWELLING FARMERS. 
A striking fact in Utah agriculture is the number of farm opera- 
tors who live in town but have their farms at varying distances in 
pounds, the container weighing 5 pounds. A case of peaches averages 21.5 to 22 pounds 
gross and a case of prunes 26 pounds gross. Usually very little Utah fruit is shipped 
east of Chicago. 
Two bushels of fine Rome Beauties were bought near Provo in the fall of 1914. They 
cost 62.5 cents per bushel, packed and ready for shipment. They were sent by express 
to Washington, D. C, at a cost of $1.98 a box and thus cost at the house door $2,505 
per bushel. If shipped in bulk the cost for transportation would have been 91.85 cents 
per bushel. These apples packed 76 and 80 to the bushel, and fruit of similar quality 
on the Washington market sold that winter for $4.25 to $4.75 per bushel. At fruit 
stands such apples sold for 10 cents each. 
