THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
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orcharding in the state, and do not know that apples are one of the most 
profitable of Iowa crops. 
Many particular instances of large annual returns might be cited, but 
the following are sufficient to indicate that such conditions actually exist. 
Mr. F. P. Spencer of Randolph, Iowa, gives his average yearly net profit 
per acre, for seven years as $91.28; A. A. Simons and Sons of Hamburg, 
Iowa, give a yearly net profit of $129.64 per acre for a five year period; 
and Mr. Chas. Garrett of Mitchellville, Iowa, for the years 1911 and 1912 
netted an average of $187.50 per acre. 
The above figures will no doubt be criticised severely, but it is not 
intended that they stand as representative of all orchards of the state, 
for the average yield in money per acre for the State is about $36.00. 
Ordinarily the orchard trees are left to shift for themselves. If there 
are no frosts to kill the blossoms, if the curculio, codling moth and scab 
do not injure the fruit before harvesting, there is bound to be a crop. Usually 
the apple tree produces many blossoms. If all or a large number of these 
are permitted to properly develop, the yield in fruit will be seven or eight 
times greater than the average, which is around 37 bushels per acre. 
And it is not impossible either. Growers in the State have proved it. I 
again cite you to Mr. Chas. Garrett of Mitchellville, Iowa, who in 1911 
harvested an average of 300 bushels per acre from his ten acre orchard. 
Others have duplicated these figures. However, the general average yield 
the state over is but twelve and one-half per cent of the maximum yield. 
When a man dips into the orcharding game he very sjoon finds out that 
general average yields will not be able to look regular pay rolls in the 
face, meet the charges for salaries, power, material, maintenance and 
depreciation and keep himself out of the bankruptcy court. 
In making a careful study of orcharding we find well established 
guideboards of experimental knowledge pointing out the way to success. 
Using a familiar illustration we may say that orchard management may be 
likened to a chain, the weakest link of which is the measure of its strength. 
The following are some of important factors upon which successful orchard- 
ing depends: Frost protection; control of insects and diseases; proper 
pruning and thinning; good physical condition of the soil, and correct methods 
of marketing and storage. Each of these factors, and probably many 
others, may be considered a link in this chain of operations. The importance 
of any one factor depends upon its relations to the othersl For example, 
in an orchard that has been well cared for in every respect except spraying, 
the important or limiting factor would be the control of insects and diseases. 
In other words it is poor economy to spend much time and money upon the 
care of an orchard and allow the apples to be eaten by worms or disfigured 
by disease. Or again, it is poor economy to develop an orchard to the 
bearing age only to permit an occasional late spring frost to rob one of 
his crop, when a few dollars expenditure would enable the grower to control 
the temperature during the danger period. The important point then is 
to determine the limiting factor and bring it up to a level with the others. 
Now, to come down to the plainest of prose, I am not altogether a 
theorist on this subject of orcharding, nor do I dabble in fruits as a rich 
and fanciful amateur. I could not afford to spend my time on a fruit farm 
