1913. 
RENTING ORCHARDS. 
The opportunities—yes, make it stronger—the de¬ 
mand for special effort to preserve orchards is so 
great in Michigan and elsewhere, the enemies so 
numerous and so aggressive, destroying not only fruit 
but the trees, that it would be wrong to turn one who 
is qualified and might be successful from putting his 
best efforts into the work. The owner could well 
afford to, and should preserve the orchard as a matter 
of sentiment. The State would be more justified in 
saving the orchards than the forests as a matter of 
conservation, considering them as a natural resource. 
The renter, regardless of how these reasons appeal 
to him, can only base his operations on how he 
answers the question, “Will it pay?” The following 
figures from the census bureau are for Hillsdale 
county, Michigan: 
Trees of bearing age Production in bushels 
1889 .318,278 638.283 
1899 .287,219 336,396 
1909 .150,094 164,432 
In 20 years the decrease in number of bearing trees 
is over 50 per cent., while the reduction in bushels 
produced per tree has decreased a like amount. The 
next census will show a greater reduction of trees, 
in fact, I doubt if there will be 50,000 bearing trees 
even in 1915 in the county. Possibly the remaining 
trees will produce proportionately more fruit. Ob¬ 
servation leads me to believe this is typical of the 
entire southern and eastern part of our State. Re¬ 
ports from fruit growing sections of other States 
indicate that many of them are in a similar condition. 
True, the new apple sections are holding the supply 
up to the demand, but if the apple had as much 
effort expended on showing up its good qualities and 
the various ways of using it as a breakfast food, or 
as good a system of distribution as Standard Oil, 
there would be more healthy people and fewer apples 
to rot on the ground. 
Five years ago we brought the first power sprayer 
into Hillsdale County and began renting orchards, 
believing that spraying had reached a stage where 
certain methods would bring definite results. This 
we have proven beyond a doubt. We tackled an 
orchard of 600 trees of the right age, medium size, 
good varieties, near shipping point, and felt sure we 
had a winner. We knew the canker worm had de¬ 
foliated the trees for several seasons, but felt we 
could handle them. And we did, but could not im¬ 
mediately compensate the trees for the loss of vitality 
that several years of abuse had placed upon them. 
This orchard has had good care in the way of trim¬ 
ming and spraying ever since and so far no satis¬ 
factory results. I have had ocasion to notice other 
orchards with the vitality seriously reduced from 
various causes—scale, no trimming, too close pastur¬ 
ing, and other causes, full of dead twigs. Such an 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
orchard might be worth the owner's efforts- to redeem, 
as its greatest profit comes from the increased value 
of the farm, but the renter is not justified except by 
the most liberal terms and a very long, lease in at¬ 
tempting to handle it. 
Our next orchard was a little older, but reasonably 
healthy, quite tall, possibly a little more favorable 
soil, had been producing a few cider apples but show¬ 
ing no profit to the owner. This was trimmed heavily, 
not really dishorned, but cut back during the first 
Summer to produce fruit buds rather than wood 
growth, properly sprayed but not cultivated. The 
response was immediate and very satisfactory. Since 
we have learned more of the soil and drainage charac¬ 
teristics of the section, we feel safe in taking our 
judgment, rather than the past history of the orchard 
or general reports concerning it, and where we have 
used judgment in making the selection, have received 
satisfactory crops. Our plan has been to make a five 
years’ lease at about 50 cents per tree, per year, 
recent contracts containing a clause that provides for 
no pay if the crop is a failure. This is essential, as 
renting on a large scale a couple of failures would 
spell ruin. We have worked on a share basis of 
one-half the fruit on the trees, the owner to trim, 
burn brush, etc. It has not proven satisfactory to 
either party in most cases, as few owners will think 
i283 
the mistakes we have made so that at least a few 
who are qualified and have the opportunity to be 
successful might avoid some of them and take the 
chance of making one, perhaps a hundred, good apples 
grow where a poor one grew before, without assuming 
too much risk. Find an orchard that is in fair condi¬ 
tion, marketable varieties, not too far from shipping 
point, if possible less than five miles. If more than five 
miles, get some definite proposition on the hauling, as 
this is a big item when you hire it done and can only 
make one trip a day. Make contracts very definite. 
Cover every conceivable point, agree on them with the 
owner, then sleep on them one night before signing 
them. Five years is a short enough time. Provide 
for a crop failure or two in succession. If they 
freeze in Winter or Spring, windstorm or hailstorm 
ruins the crop, who loses the rent? The owner would 
have lost if you had stayed away; should you lose 
more than the spraying and work you have done? A 
big and profitable crop sometimes changes the owner’s 
attitude to your great inconvenience, unless you are 
fully protected in writing as to all privileges of water, 
getting around outside of orchard, to and from 
orchard, storage rights for barrels or apples, feed, 
board, pasturing, apples reserved for farm use, trim¬ 
ming or hauling. All possible contingencies would 
b? a matter of agreement in writing, and where a 
IN A VIRGINIA APPLE ORCHARD—THE REAL THING IN SPRAYING. Fig. 84. 
as we do regarding trimming. On the other hand, 
having some orchards that all the fruit belongs to 
us on the cash basis, we are less interested in the 
share deals and inclined to slight them in the rush 
seasons. 
W T e find our sprayer with water convenient can 
handle about 1,500 trees. Two sprayers, with an extra 
engine to pump the water and a man to mix and 
oversee the filling of the tanks and care of engines, 
will handle 3,000 trees satisfactorily and by keeping 
the whole crew together, one can have oversight of 
operations on this scale. We and others tried sub¬ 
letting, also hiring men to care for certain orchards, 
with the result that we are converted to the belief 
that two men and a team, or five men and two teams, 
with the boss on the job all the time, is the only 
practical method of renting. We think a man in this 
business should have no other work on his hands 
from March to December; at least nothing that will 
take precedence over his orchard work for a single 
day. 
As stated by the pioneer orchard renter of Michi¬ 
gan, Mr. T. A. Farrand, “I regret having said things 
that have led persons to go into this work who, for 
various reasons, have not been successful.” But so 
long as the American characteristic of taking a chance 
prevails, so long men will take the chance and not all 
will Succeed. If success were sure. I doubt if it would 
be so attractive. I wish I might in some way show 
'tenant is on the farm he^ should be a party to the 
deal, as the renter has often more'to do with the 
tenant than with the owner. 
Some of the established costs will be about as fol¬ 
low's, on an average for five years: Trimming, 20 
cents per year; spraying, 50 to 70 cents per year; 
picking, 15 to 25 cents per barrel; packing, 15 to 20 
cents per barrel; hauling, 10 cents per barrel; with 
board and w r ages at $2 for man, $3.50 for man and 
team; $7 per barrel for lime and sulphur, and seven 
cents per pound for arsenate of lead. Don’t bank on 
over one barrel per tree the first two years. If one 
finds an orchard that does better than this, they are 
quite sure to have another one that will bring it down. 
We have been best satisfied with letting the picking of 
the orchards in a neighborhood to some one near 
there at a price per bushel that warrants him in 
looking up help and managing the specified orchards 
as though they were his own. To secure a uniform 
pack we, with others, have found it necessary to 
bring all apples to a central point for packing. In a 
smaller way, packing in the orchard will prove more 
economical and possibly can be done satisfactorily, 
depending on the disposition to be made of the fruit. 
With these facts before us, the apples having cost 
us 35% to 50% more than they would have cost the 
owner if he is working his own farm, we are up 
against the marketing proposition. Thq established 
methods of selling in the orchard, consigning to a 
