46 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
COUNTING THE COST OF FARMING—V 
The Final Summing Up -—Production and Profit Figures from the Book-Keeping 
Department—Inter-Crops and the Part They Played in Making the Farm Pay 
FLORA LEWIS MARBLE 
Potatoes were grown in rows between the apple trees, far enough from the latter to allow 
cultivation to be kept up. The returns from this crop helped out on the tree expense budget 
E VERY tree that 
was planted the 
first fall lived through 
the winter. During the 
first s u m m e r three 
were girdled by wood¬ 
chucks, one was in¬ 
jured by a plow, and 
one died of no appar¬ 
ent cause. This made 
a loss of five trees out 
of 429, or about one 
per cent. None has 
died since the first 
summer. 
The second fall 
planting of 2,550 trees 
found three dead the 
following spring. 
When the count was 
made again in Octo¬ 
ber, 230 trees were 
dead or sickly, or 
nearly ten per cent 
loss the first summer. 
This seemed exces¬ 
sive, but the cause 
was considered. Sev¬ 
eral gangs of men 
had worked to set out 
so many trees, care¬ 
less planting had resulted now and then. In 
several places the dead trees were found 
with their roots rolled tightly into a bunch 
and thrust into the hole. These little care¬ 
lessnesses had happened, of course, when 
the overseer turned his back and things were 
in a hurry. 
The first spring-set orchard of 197 trees 
lost three during the first year, or between 
one and two per cent. The second spring 
setting of 2,500 trees lost sixty-nine the first 
year, or less than three per cent. 
The Orchard Record 
A definite system of watchfulness was 
established at once over the trees and a book 
record kept. Each orchard record is kept 
by itself. Beginning at one corner of the 
orchard, each row is lettered alphabetically. 
The rows using the letters of the first alpha¬ 
bet are Plot 1. When Z of that alphabet is 
reached Plot 2 begins. The end tree in each 
row is tagged. Each tag is marked with the 
necessary data to show the worker what was 
needed on that row when last it was ex¬ 
amined. For example: 
Plot 2—Row N 
Even, Spys—Odd, Wealthy 
29 dead—52 in row 
That means to the caretaker that this is 
plot 2, row N. Numbering from this end 
of the row number 29 is dead. There are 
fifty-two trees in the row. He can see at a 
glance that, in ordering a new tree to fill the 
vacancy twenty-nine, he must order a 
W ealthy. 
This data is also kept in a book that is in¬ 
valuable for studying orchard conditions. 
Another book is kept for photographs and 
personal notes on the condition of the trees. 
Photographs of one tree of each variety 
have been made at intervals. The spot on 
the ground where the camera stands by each 
tree is carefully marked. When the tree was 
set its picture was made. After it had made 
a year’s growth it was photographed again. 
After the pruning at the beginning of its 
second summer it was photographed, and 
again after the growth of the year, and so 
on. These photographs were submitted for 
comparison and advice from time to time to 
various men whose words were law on 
things horticultural. The expense accounts 
are kept in another, and more business-like 
volume. 
The expense of maintaining the first or¬ 
chard the first year was for 429 trees from 
February to September: 
Pruning . $5.00 
Removing mounds about roots, tak¬ 
ing off tree protectors. 4.12 
Plowing and harrowing. 21.95 
Fighting insects. 13.45 
Fall expense, plowing for cover crop 3.00 
Sowing and harrowing cover crop. . . 4.00 
Cost of Zi bushel of vetch, j /4 bushel 
of rye. 5.58 
Putting on tree protectors. 2.00 
Total ..$64.10 
Potatoes were grown in rows between the 
apple trees. They were planted far enough 
from the trees so that cultivation could be 
kept up about the trees and a cover crop put 
in in strips where the trees stood before the 
potatoes were dug. The potato expense fol¬ 
lows : 
Six barrels best seed.$24.00 
j /4 ton fertilizer. 8.25 
Planting, cultivating, spraying. 31.29 
Digging (by hand), carting. 24.37 
Total .$87.91 
This was a season 
when potatoes were 
rotting. Farmers 
flooded the market 
with their stock to get 
rid of it before it 
spoiled. Buyers were 
paying fifty cents a 
bushel and refusing 
much stock that was 
offered at that price. 
The return from this 
planting was only 230 
bushels, but thanks to 
the good seed, there 
was no rot. It was 
decided to keep the 
potatoes in the cellar 
for seed to plant be¬ 
tween the trees in the 
third orchard the fol¬ 
lowing year. If we 
had sold it on the mar¬ 
ket in the fall we 
would have realized 
only $115 which, de¬ 
ducting the expense 
of growing — $87.91 
—left a profit of only 
$27.09 to meet the 
tree expense for the 
year, which came to a total of $64.10. 
The potatoes kept hard, firm and white 
all winter. Through the following August 
the family were still eating them because 
they were better than those on the market. 
This is proof enough of the efficiency of 
the potato cellar. 
Part of the second orchard, it will be re¬ 
membered, is on steep, rather shallow, rocky 
soil. It was thought best the first season to 
plant crimson clover on this part to improve 
the land and find out if this crop would stand 
the climate. So the land was left open and 
harrowed now and then until July, when the 
crimson clover was planted. It did winter- 
kill, however, and now we use rye and vetch 
for cover crops in its place. The expense of 
maintaining the second orchard the first year 
follows: 
Expert pruning . $5.00 
Spraying and material . 4.50 
Harrowing and working ground.... 4.00 
Painting tree trunks, looking for 
borers . 2.63 
Wrapping trees for winter. 3.50 
20 pounds of crimson clover seed. . . 5.50 
Total .$25.13 
On the part of the ground that we did not 
plant to crimson clover we sowed the fol¬ 
lowing crops between the trees, always leav¬ 
ing room to cultivate around the trees: 
Plowing between trees .. . $4.50 
One bushel Canadian field peas. 3.50 
Oats to plant with them. 1.00 
Harrowing, planting same.75 
Cultivation . 2.00 
Yl pound carrot seed. 1.75 
One pound mangel-wurzel.60 
Harrowing and care of same. 6.00 
Total .$20.10 
