409 
THE NEW-YORKER 
March 14, 
Farm Management. 
COST OF AN APPLE ORCHARD TO 
BEARING AGE. 
Part II. 
Orchard C is six years of age, having 
been set in the Spring of 190S. It is an 
apple orchard 10.22 acres in extent, con¬ 
taining 275 apple trees, varieties Bald¬ 
win, Northern Spy and Wealthy, set 36 
by 40 feet and filled in the rows both 
ways with 817 peach trees, mostly El- 
bertas. The trees thus stand 18 by 20 
feet apart. 
Cost of growing an apple and peach 
orchard to four years of age. 27 apple 
and 80 peach trees per acre set in 1008, 
13x20 feet apart: 
ITEMS 
Labor Cost (man 20c, total 
horse 15c an hr.) set¬ 
ting trees (inc. hauling, cost»n co<*» 
staking out, replacing, Aero iooTree» 
etc.) . $5.36 $5.00 
Spraying (once a year).. .64 .60 
Pruning and hauling brush 1.21 1.10 
Fertilizing and manuring 1.95 1.80 
Hoeing and grubbing.... 2.06 2.00 
Plowing (tree rows only) 3.56 3.30 
Cultivating . 2.87 2.70 
Picking (4th year).66 .60 
Marketing (4th year) ... .50 .50 
Misc.55 .50 
Total Labor . 
$19.36 
$18.10 
Cash Costs: 
Apple trees, 27 at 15c 
(inc. replacements)... 
$4.98 
\ 
Poach trees, 80 at 10c 
t $14.40 
(inc. replacements)... 
10.49 
f 
Fertilizer . 
4.14 
3.80 
Cover crop . 
3.31 
3.10 
Spray material .. 
.60 
.60 
Equipment . 
2.45 
2.30 
Taxes . 
3.95 
3.70 
Interest (5% on $120 
to $175) . 
29.75 
27.S0 
Buildings (15% crops 
costs) . 
2.90 
2.70 
Overhead (9% other 
costs) . 
4.42 
4.10 
Management . 
20.00 
18.70 
Total cash . 
$86.99 
$81.20 
Grand total cost...$106.35 
$99.30 
Summary statement of 
cost 
to four 
years of age. 
100 
Total cost of orchard 
Acre 
Trees 
at 4 yrs.$106.35 
$1.00 
Not income from 4 crops, 
l cans between tree 
rows . 53.41 .50 
Net income from 1 crop 
peaches 4th yr. 9.21 .09 
Total net income from 
land in 4 yrs. 62.62 .59 
Actual net cost of orchard $43.73 $0.41 
Net income from orchard 
5th yr. 46.32 .43 
Net income from orchard 
6th yr. 53.60 .50 
Net gain on orchard in 
6 yrs. 59.19 .52 
Net gain on orchard per 
year .. 9.36 .087 
Labor Costs. —All labor costs are 
given in dollars and cents an acre for 
each operation for the whole 10-year and 
four-year periods, the ages at which the 
two orchards came to bearing or at which 
they reached a point where the annual 
income from the trees exceeded the out¬ 
go. That this was the eleventh year in 
the case of Orchard A and the fifth year 
in the case of Orchard U was due en¬ 
tirely to the original plan and to the 
management of the two orchards. A 
brief explanation of some of these labor 
costs should be made. The item of set¬ 
ting trees includes hauling from the sta¬ 
tion, staking out the land and the labor 
of replacing dead trees as well as the 
actual setting of the trees. The graft¬ 
ing charges covers the labor of a helper, 
the actual setting of the scions being 
paid for at so much per scion and is in¬ 
cluded in the cash charges. The or¬ 
chards were sprayed but once a year and 
in the case of Orchard A, only for the 
last four years. Pruning was done as 
necessary, but not systematically every 
year. No commercial fertilizer has been 
used except one year in Orchard C. Ma¬ 
nure has been applied to the apple trees 
at least every other year. The peach 
trees have had no manure. Manure ap¬ 
plied to the land between the trees has 
been charged to the crop. A cover crop 
of rye, sown in the Fall was sown once 
in each orchard. 
Cultivation. —The trees were hoed at 
least once a year to loosen the surface 
soil, to form a mulch and to destroy 
weeds. The peach trees were “grubbed” 
for borers in June each year. The or¬ 
chards were plowed annually, but when 
crops were grow r n only the plowing of 
the uncropped land was charged to the 
trees. The same was true of cultivation 
which was frequent enough to conserve 
moisture and to control weeds. The crops 
bore all costs of handling the land they oc¬ 
cupied, except when they were grown for 
the sake of the orchards, as in the case 
of the rye. In Orchard A, four crops of 
beans, two crops of corn, two crops of 
hay, and one crop each of wheat and oats 
have been grown. Each year the area 
of crops grown in the orchard was les¬ 
sened, and the strips of land on either 
side of the “tree rows,” which were cul¬ 
tivated, widened. Four crops of beans 
w r ere grown in Orchard C. No crop w T as 
grown between the trees in this orchard 
after the fourth year. The charges for 
picking and marketing all occurred in 
the last four years in Orchard A, and in 
the fourth year in C. Miscellaneous costs 
include banking trees in the Fall, ditch¬ 
ing land, etc. 
Cash Costs. —The purchase price of 
apple trees was 15 and 16 cents each, of 
plum trees 16 cents and of peach trees 
10 cents. The cost of replaced trees has 
been added to this in the table. The 
grafting cost five cents for each scion 
which lived a year. Manure was 
charged at $1.50 a two-horse wagonload, 
and spray materials, packages, etc., at 
current prices. The cost of equipment 
was arrived at by determining the entire 
cost of equipment for the farm, which is 
made up of interest, depreciation and re¬ 
pairs, dividing this by the total num¬ 
ber of hours used to get a rate per hour, 
and then multiplying the total hours 
which it was used on the orchard by this 
rate. The taxes have ranged from 
.00438 to .009 on a dollar. Interest 
is charged at five per cent, the current 
rate on farm mortgages, and has been 
compounded once a year. Building 
charges which are composed of interest, 
depreciation and repairs, have been dis¬ 
tributed on the basis of use by the pro¬ 
ductive enterprises of the farm. Over¬ 
head costs include fence repairs, tele¬ 
phone rents, Grange dues and similar 
miscellaneous charges which cannot be 
assigned directly to any farm enterprise. 
These have been found to average one 
year with another about nine per cent, 
of all other cash costs. The manage¬ 
ment cost is assumed and nominal. The 
manager has usually worked 10 hours 
at manual labor every day, as well as 
managing the farm. The owner’s man¬ 
agement has been confined to working 
up the orchard records and to occasional 
visits. lie has, however, laid out the 
plan of management and directed the 
policy of handling the orchard. 
Results. —The results are both poor 
and good. They are not remarkable in 
any way, but probably represent fairly 
well average conditions as they exist in 
Western New York. Orchard A. is 
found to have cost $262.13 an acre or 
$4.16 per tree to grow to 10 years of 
age. Not counting the plum trees, the 
apple trees have cost $8 apiece at 10 
years of age. Of this total cost, about 
$52 an acre or 82% cents a tree is labor, 
or about 20 per cent. Cultivation is the 
largest single labor item. Of the cash 
cost of $210 an acre or $3.33 1-3 per 
tree, which includes everything except 
labor, interest amounts to 42 per cent., 
and management to 24 per cent. These 
are by far the largest single items, the 
next in amount being overhead charges 
which are eight per cent, of the total 
cash costs and six per cent, of the en¬ 
tire costs. A part of this cost has been 
offset by growing crops between the tree 
rows. These have averaged an annual 
net profit of $4.20 an acre, not counting 
interest on the land which is charged 
to the orchard, and have reduced the to¬ 
tal cost by one-fifth. The plum fillers 
have reduced the net cost eight per cent, 
more and the apples themselves have re¬ 
turned nearly $3 an acre by the tenth 
year. These factors have reduced the 
net cost to $200.24 an acre or $3.18 a 
tree, or to a little more than $6 an apple 
tree. The crops of apples, plums and 
canning peas (between the rows) in the 
eleventh year returned a net sum of 
$42.51 an acre, or 68 cents a tree of this 
amount. M. C. buriutt. 
“Pa, a balloon’s just landed in the ap¬ 
ple orchard.” “Good ! I’ll just run down 
there and get them to pick the apples off 
that high tree. I’ve been wondering how 
on earth I was going to get that fruit.”— 
Winnipeg Telegram. 
H 
0ME-MIX YOUR FERTILIZER 
BETTER FERTILIZER-LESS M0NEY-N0 USELESS FILLER 
If you can mix Cement you can mix Fertilizer 
1100 Bushels Potatoes per acre yearly, Guernsey, Channel Islands 
600 Bushels, C. Fred. Fawcett, Upper Sackviile, 1913 
350 Bushels, State Farm, Massachusetts, 1913 
ON HOME-MIXED FERTILIZER, 
Write for FREE Booklets, Formulas, Full Directions 
ALL FERTILIZER MATERIALS—NITRATE OF SODA, POTASH 
SALTS. ACID PHOSPHATES. BASIC SLAG, ANIMAL AMMON1ATES 
NITRATE AGENCIES CO., 106 Pearl Street, NEW YORK 
THE MASTER KEY TO PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 
Phosphorus is so-called because it’s use gives largely increased yields of 
clover, alfalfa and other legumes, which secure nitrogen from 
the air. The acids formed by the decaying roots of these 
plants make available the potash which is abundant 
in most soils. Recorded experiments on all nor 
mal soils in the Eastern and Middle West* 
ern states show greater profits from 
the use of phosphorus than 
from any other element, 
or combination of 
elements. 
Why Shrewd Men Are Buyii 
m Rubber Work Shoes 
The cost of living is up. The price of leather is at top notch. 
The demand for leather is increasing by leaps and bounds. The 
automobile manufacturers alone are using it in vast quantities. 
That’s why leather work shoes are much higher priced than 
they were in the past. And that is also the reason why rubber foot¬ 
wear—which is better than that made of leather—is being worn 
by wise farmers. 
A pair of Hub-Mark Bootees, like the one pictured here, 
costs no more than leather work shoes, and will last much longer. 
They are soft and comfortable. 
Moreover, they do not chafe nor cause corns, bunions, nor cal¬ 
louses. They are very warm. Try a pair instead of leather shoes. 
I'cte this :—Look for the Hub-Mark on all kinds and styles of rubber 
footwear for men, women, boys, and girls. You can rely on anything you buy 
from dealers who sell Hub-Mark Bootees —they are squar dealers. 
BOSTON RUBBER SHOE COMPANY, Malden, Mass. 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quicK repiy 
and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
