Vol. LXX. No. 4106. 
NEW YORK, JULY 8, 1911. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
COST OF GROWING NEW YORK APPLES. 
I have watched with a great deal of interest the 
campaign of The R. N.-Y. for more light on the cost 
of producing various farm crops. It has already re¬ 
sulted in a great many valuable figures. The value of 
isuch figures is measured by the accuracy with which 
they are made, the completeness with which they 
are presented and by whether they represent average 
conditions or not. 
As I have long been interested in this phase of 
farming, and particularly in fruit growing, which is 
our specialty, and as no very complete records have 
yet been presented on the cost of apple production, I 
am minded to give these costs on our farm in Mon¬ 
roe County, New York. They should be taken at 
their face value, as a true record on 
this particular orchard and under our 
own conditions. They are not given 
as an average cost but as our average 
cost. And yet I cannot but feel that 
they come very close to the general 
average of the section, because the or¬ 
chard is a very ordinary one, no nearef 
the best than it is the worst in the 
county. The records, too, are as ac¬ 
curate and as complete as we know how 
to make them, and we have had the 
assistance of Mr. E. H. Thompson, of 
the Section of Farm Records of the 
Office of Farm Management, in the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture at Washington, 
D. C. 
There are a great many factors which 
enter into the cost of producing a barrel 
of apples, some of which are not usually 
taken into account in reckoning this 
cost. As these factors vary, so will the 
cost of production vary. We naturally 
think first of the labor cost involved, 
as this is one of the largest items. The 
orchard must be pruned, plowed and 
cultivated until midsummer and a cover 
crop sown. The trees must be sprayed 
two or three times, and finally the fruit 
harvested and marketed. The apple re¬ 
quires constant and careful attention 
from bud to barrel, and all this means 
labor and money. Then there are the 
cash costs which must be considered, 
the fertilizer or manure applied if any, 
the package and the spray material. 
Lastly we must not forget .the large 
items of cost which are so frequently 
omitted, a reasonable rate of interest on 
the investment in the land and in the 
equipment to handle it, and the over¬ 
head charges, such as land and school 
taxes and insurance on the buildings. 
Our orchard consists of 6.1 acres 
containing 234 trees. About one- 
half of the trees, or 110, are 36 
years old. The remainder are nearly 
50 years of age. As they are all in 
one block and handled together the 
charges cannot well be separated; 134 
of the trees are Baldwin, 44 Twenty 
Ounce, 40 Tompkins County King, 
and the remainder odd varieties. For 
the last nine years, or since 1902, the 
orchard has had good care and atten¬ 
tion. The records, given at the top of 
next column, cover this period: 
TABLE SHOWING THE ITEMS OP EXPENSE IN PKODUC1NG APPLES IN A 
SIX-ACRE ORCHARD IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
Year 
Cover 
Spray 
Barrels 
5 ah lilt. 
Equipm’t Oveih’d 
I^abor 
Total 
Crop 
Mat’! 
on .Land 
Charge 
Charge 
Cost 
Co8t 
1992 
$6.04 
$117.88 
$27.45 
$25.00 
$2.97 
$339.15 
$519.39 
1903 
1 1.22 
1G4.92 
28.98 
25.00 
2.88 
249.55 
482.56 
19(14 
10.50 
109.90 
30.50 
25.00 
3.93 
180.56 
360 38 
1905 
6.10 
12.45 
88.80 
30.60 
25.00 
3 40 
158.06 
324.31 
1900 
14.83 
112.35 
33.06 
25.00 
4.78 
211.76 
401.SO 
1907 
10.00 
10.86 
79.80 
35.56 
25.00 
4.89 
192.30 
304 40 
19(18 
9.75 
205.45 
37.76 
30.09 
7.09 
293.50 
583.55 
19u9 
8.G8 
19.2G 
196.36 
41.97 
38.98 
5.91 
280.78 
591.93 
1910 
23.89 
116.90 
45.75 
32.39 
5.58 
175.26 
399,77 
8-yr. Average 
$13.94 
S132-.73 
$34.61 
$27.93 
$4.60 
$231.25 
$447.57 
Avg. per acre, 
2.28 
21.76 
5.67 
4.58 
.75 
37.91 
73.38 
Avg. per bbl., 
.034 
.325 
.084 
.068 
.011 
.565 
1.10 
A cover crop was not sown every year. When 
sown the charge was made against the orchard. The 
value of the manure applied is the only thing lacking 
in this table. This is omitted because there is some 
uncertainty as to the amount, and more as to its real 
value. It was applied once in three years—three ap¬ 
plications during the period—at the rate of about 
12 loads per acre. If we assume that 225 loads have 
been applied in the period and that the value was $1 
per load (the cost of hauling is included in the labor 
charges), a charge of $25 per year should be added, 
which amounts to $4.10 per acre and six cents per 
barrel. 
Two or three sprayings have been made every year. 
Until 1909 Bordeaux mixture and Paris green were 
used. Since then the commercial brands of lime sul¬ 
phur and arsenate of lead have been used, nearly 
doubling the cost of the spray material. The aver¬ 
age cost of the material for spraying has been $2.23 
per acre or nearly V/z cents per barrel of apples har¬ 
vested. In 1910 this cost was $3.92 per 
acre and seven cents a barrel. The cost 
of the package has varied from 28 to 
38 cents, and averaged 32)4 cents or 
$21.76 per acre. 
Interest has been figured at five cents 
in all cases, but as the price of the land 
has varied from $90 at the beginning 
of the period to its present valuation of 
$150 per acre, due to its improvement 
and the general increase in the price 
of land, the amount of interest has also 
varied. The same is true of the equip¬ 
ment charge, which has also increased 
each year. The average valuation of 
the land for the nine year period was 
$113.50. This means an annual interest 
charge per acre of $5.67 or & l / 2 cents 
per barrel. The equipment charge, 
which is interest, repairs and deprecia¬ 
tion on the machinery used in the or¬ 
chard, amounts to more than 6)4 cents 
per barrel or $4.58 per acre. Taxes 
and insurance on the buildings distri¬ 
buted per acre for the farm, averaged 
75 cents per acre or a trifle over a 
cent per barrel. 
Fig. 267. Labor is the largest single item. For 
the first three years this was estimated 
on the basis of the cost for the last five 
years for which more careful records 
were kept. This labor is computed at 
its actual cost to us on the farm. The 
rates per hour were 15)4 cents for men 
and 13)4 cents for horses. The rate per 
hour of the man labor was obtained by 
dividing the total amount of money 
paid for labor plus the cost of the board, 
by the total number of hours worked on 
the farm during the year. In the case 
of the horses a fixed charge of $10 a 
month or $120 a year was made, and 
this amount divided by the number of 
hours the horses worked, gave the rate 
per hour. These charges amount to 
$4.25 a day for man and team, 'The. 
cost of the labor to grow, pick and 
market a barrel of apples was 56)4 cents, 
or $37.91 cents per acre with an aver-, 
age yield of 67 barrels per acre. 
To sum up these items of cost we find 
that, taking the average of nine years, 
with an annual crop of 409 barrels or 67 
per acre, on 6.1 acres of old apple or¬ 
chard, that spray material costs $.034 
per barrel; packages, $.325; interest on 
the land, $.84; use of equipment, $.968; 
THE ORCHARD WHERE FIGURES WERE TAKEN. 
PICKING AND PACKING THE APPLES. Fig. 268. 
