AMERICAN POMOEOGICAE SOCIETY 
ISO 
An Orchard Investment. 
There is an appreciating investment. We plant an apple tree and 
it continually increases in value if we give it any kind of care; neglect it 
and give it no care and it continually goes down in value. But with that 
appreciation in value we must remember there comes a continued invest- 
ment; it does not come without extra cost. We must care for that tree, put- 
ting money into it every year; then it will increase more and more, and the 
man with limited capital, the poor man, must keep that fact in mind, because 
it is going to cost money to get an orchard into bearing — and for that reason 
he must try to find other things to keep up the going expense. 
The Pennsylvania farmer, as well as others, must consider the labor 
problem, both in his general business and with relation to this matter. I 
will not dwell upon the general labor problem; we all know how difficult it 
is, though perhaps we have not begun to see all the important bearings of 
it. Workingmen are demanding higher wages; railroads and factories are 
compelled to raise wages to meet that demand; that means that more 
laborers are enticed from the farm to take those positions. The farmer 
must increase wages, thus adding to the cost of living, and so on and on in 
an endless chain. It reminds me of your saying, Mr. President, “grow more 
corn to feed more hogs to eat more corn.” It is the question of getting more 
men to get higher wages, and so around in an endless cycle, and what the 
outcome will be perhaps none of us can tell. 
The distribution of labor, is one of the hard problems which the fruit 
grower must solve, because his business calls for increaed labor as certain 
periods — and comparatively little at other seasons of the year. It is a difficult 
problem and one not easily solved in orcharding alone. The problem can 
be most easily solved by combining fruit growing with other lines of 
work. As to type of help, the fruit grower has an advantage in some 
locations, because much of the work of harvesting can be done by cheap 
labor. We in Pennsylvania are not well situated to get that type of labor, 
however, and must depend upon the local supply largely; and it is more 
important for us to adjust our labor distribution evenly throughout the year 
and maintain as neary as possible the same force than it is in some other 
localities. 
Diversity vs. Specialty. 
Now this leads to the consideration of the lines of production. Shall we 
limit ourselves to a special line or shall we diversify? We hear it said too often 
that this is an age of specialization, that we are led to believe that only 
the man who specializes can hope to succeed. Now I question whether that 
is always true, for the Pennsylvania fruit grower at least. I doubt whether 
the man who specializes on apples alone, or on peaches alone, has as good 
prospect of success as the man who diversifies that fruit growing or who 
mixes in with that fruit growing some other lines of agricultural enterprise. 
Now the capital requirement, as I have already suggested, in orcharding, 
is heavy before returns come — the period is long. On the other hand, there 
is an advantage in specializing from cost of equipment. It takes more money 
to equip a farm for different lines of work than it does for one alone. But 
I believe that a narrow specialization is not the wisest plan for us here. 
