THE CULTIVATOR. 
279 
1848 . 
The Nursery Business. 
The great increase in the number of nurseries for the 
raising of fruit trees, within the past few years, shows 
the attention which the business has drawn to it, as 
well as the interest in the public generally to procure 
fruit. Very vague and indefinite are the notions of 
many respecting it; large numbers engage in it with 
the belief that it is the sure road to fortune; and others 
suppose that the prices paid for fruit trees are too 
high, and that half their money thus expended goes to 
make the nurseryman rich, and hence this money is grud¬ 
gingly bestowed, and trees more sparingly planted. 
We believe a more general' knowledge of the real 
nature of this business, would be useful in many ways, 
and prevent disappointment to beginners, and conse¬ 
quently tend to success in cases which are now accom¬ 
panied with failure. Many have noticed the great be¬ 
nefit which has been derived in those parts of the coun¬ 
try where nurseries were early established, in the num¬ 
ber and quantity of fine fruits which now exist. The 
successful establishment of nurseries, becomes there¬ 
fore, a public benefit; and it can hardly fail to be use¬ 
ful to point out to those engaging in the business, the 
costs as well as the profits which are to be expected. 
A brief estimate of the cost of raising a nursery of 
ten acres, may assist in placing the business in its true 
light. Nearly all nurseries of much size or character 
in this State are near cities,—because they are found 
most profitable in such localities,—where land costs 
from $300 to 500 per acre, the yearly interest on which 
■would be $21 to $35 per acre, and the rent not less. 
Taking $28 as the average, the rent of ten acres would 
be $280 per annum. To keep a nursery of this size in 
proper order , at least four hands on an average, and 
one horse would be required; with board and feed, the 
right sort could not be had for less than $750. The 
materials to stock such a nursery would vary greatly 
with its character and with circumstances; but we will 
call it $500.* To manure and drain the land properly, 
and bring it to a suitable condition, could not be less 
than $50 per acre. Advertising, printing catalogues, 
procuring tools, materials for packing trees, &c., would 
be $100 per year. The yearly cost of seeds and col¬ 
lecting stocks, &c., might vary from $50 to $1,000, 
according to circumstances, or the enterprize of the nur¬ 
seryman, but we will call it $200. There are many 
other items of a smaller nature which we do not take 
into account. The whole cost, therefore, of a ten acre 
nursery for five years, the average growth of saleable 
trees, would be as follows:— 
Rent $280X5 years with interest,.$1611 
Labor, 750X5 years,.... 3750 
Interest,... 565 
-- 4310 
Stock, $500, -with interest,... 701 
Manure, &c., 500 with interest,. 701 
Printing, tools, &c.,. 500 
Interest,. 77 
- 577 
Seeds, stocks, &c.,. 1000 
Interest,. 322 
- 1322 
Total cost in 5 years,. $9222 
Or $1844 per year. 
In computing, compound interest is reckoned, and 
when the entire outlay was at the beginning, the inter¬ 
est on the whole is taken: where yearly expenses are 
estimated, interest on the successively accumulating 
sum only, is allowed. The aggregate cost would be 
* The constant renewals, and procuring new varieties, &c., 
would about renew this amount bv the end of the first five or six 
years, when the first stock of trees’will be sold out. 
less where land is cheaper, but the profits in such cases, 
from a want of facilities, would be reduced still lower. 
To estimate the actual value of such a nursery would 
be nearly impossible. The accidents which befal young 
trees are so numerous, that to say how many may be¬ 
come actually fine saleable trees, would be entirely 
conjectural. Many failures occur,—sometimes thou¬ 
sands are killed in a single winter by the heaving of the 
soil—or by severe or unusual winters—or by freezing 
of the inserted bud—or by breaking down under deep 
snow—or by drying of the grafts—by severe drouth 
—by ungenial soil—or by all these causes more or less 
combined. We have known different nurserymen ex¬ 
pend hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars 
in attempting to raise certain kinds of trees, on land 
naturally unsuited to them, though highly manured, 
without receiving ten per cent on the outlay; we have 
known the value of thousands of dollars destroyed in 
one winter by frost in a single nursery; we have seen 
young and tender trees perish by tens of thousands in 
the excessive drouth of a summer. The facilities for 
disposing of trees, also, are greatly influenced by cir¬ 
cumstances. Sometimes the demand for a particular 
variety may be great; in a few years it may become 
unsaleable, or be eclipsed by others not always better, 
and large sacrifices result from such overstocked mar¬ 
ket. Large deductions must often be made to agents, 
for it rarely happens that a nurseryman is able to dis¬ 
pose of his entire stock at full retail prices. 
We have already shown that a ten-acre nursery, if 
properly conducted, costs nearly $1,000 ayear—taking 
every thing into account, it would probably exceed this 
sum. The profits must come from one-fifth, or two 
and a-half acres yearly average. The superintendent 
or proprietor of such a nursery, who is his own sales¬ 
man, bookkeeper, clerk, traveller, and general mana¬ 
ger, would hardly expect less than five hundred dollars 
per year for his services; especially if from this amount 
he had to pay house rent, and furnish his family (if he 
has one) with food, clothing and fuel, to say nothing of 
paying doctors’ bills. T wenty-five hundred dollars must 
come yearly from two and a-half acres; and when it is 
remembered that, in usual practice, not half the trees 
planted ever attain, a marketable appearance, and that 
there are in fact often not more than one thousand good 
trees on two and a-half acres, which at this rate would 
have to be sold at twenty-five cents each, as an aver¬ 
age,—it will be perceived that the present prices of 
trees cannot be much reduced except at a loss. Extreme 
cases occasionally occur of a much greater amount of 
good trees per acre; but formidable losses also occur, 
greatly reducing the average. In conclusion, it may 
be therefore remarked, that this, like all other kinds of 
business, requiring judgment, activity, vigilance and 
intelligence, may if industriously pursued, afford a re¬ 
turn for the labor bestowed. We have known a few 
men who have thus accumulated comfortable estates— 
we have known a larger number who have either lost 
or become insolvent—and a still larger number who 
have just succeeded in making a living. 
The question often arises, whether the farmer can 
most cheaply raise his own trees or purchase them. If 
he has some knowledge of the business, trees of good 
varieties to propagate, and considerable leisure, he may 
easily raise them, otherwise not. Whatever is done by 
wholesale, is usually most cheaply done; and this is 
especially the case where new varieties are to be in¬ 
troduced. The nurseryman may procure such, and fur¬ 
nish a hundred or a thousand, at a lower rate than an 
amateur could procure it from the same source, and 
raise but a single tree. 
Erratum. —p. 217, line 3d from bottom of 2d co¬ 
lumn, for “ Eastern pippin,” read Easter Pippii. 
