THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
57 
Budding with us has not proven a marked success, but 
this method of field top-grafting has. We grow about fifty- 
thousand apple trees in this way each year and over one 
hundred and fifty thousand jjlum and Compass cherry trees. 
We should grow more of our apple trees in the manner above 
described, but we do not have the time, men or facilities for 
doing the work properly in the comparatively short season 
when the work must be done to insure success. 
MORE ABOUT COST OF PRODUCTION 
In answer to the questions propounded in your letter of 
December gth, we will say: 
(1) We have been trying to evolve a method of determin¬ 
ing cost of production. Our efforts have been extended 
over the past ten years in this direction, and we think we 
are getting somewhere near a solution, though we do not 
consider that it is perfect yet. 
(2) As a general principle we believe a nursery should 
be conducted so that all expenses of whatsoever nature are 
in the final annual analysis divided up and put as a burden 
upon the nursery stock accounts. There are always a lot 
of overhead expenses, which you cannot during the year 
divide up against the nursery stock accounts, and yet the 
nursery stock accounts are in their sum total the real revenue 
producing part of the business. It is our theory, therefore, 
that after having followed up the nursery stock accounts 
during the year and charged them with all the expenses that 
can be directly charged, then in closing the books all the 
rest of the loss side of loss and gain should be in some 
manner divided on to the said nursery stock accounts. 
How to do that is, of course, a question. It has to be more 
or less, arbitrary. Such things as rent, taxes, insurance, 
heat, light, depreciation,, etc. do not have any more direct 
bearing upon your apple account than they do upon your 
ornamental shrub account. Therefore, we consider a pro 
rata division of all this “overhead” expense about as equit¬ 
able a division as can be made. Now at the end of the season 
you have down a figure representing the total cost of pro¬ 
duction in each of the separate propagation accounts. If 
you also are careful in getting figures to cover the net pro¬ 
duction of each account, it is then a simple matter to arrive 
at the cost per tree. Of course, as to relative value of the 
different sizes produced, there would be considerable dif¬ 
ference of opinion, so every nurseryman might have a 
different way of dividing it. 
We have not gone into details of this system, but think 
that the broad outline given will, perhaps, be suggestive 
to some nurseryman who is beginning as we did to try and 
accomplish what we well understand many other nurser^^- 
men declare to be impossible, namely the arrival of the cost 
of producing a tree. 
(3) Certainly. The sooner all wholesale nurserymen 
can realize that selling below cost is absolutely “worthless 
business”, they will, if they do know the cost, stop that 
practice. We think the trouble is that most of us do not 
know what the cost may be. 
Another thing about a system of cost figures. It is 
unsafe to take any one year’s figures as an arbitrary basis. 
Our idea is that you must take the figures of three years, or 
preferably five. 
(4) We will admit that the other man’s catalog price is 
apt to influence us, but we believe the pohey should be to 
stop propagation rather than get down to the other man’s 
price, if you cannot grow that particular item at a profit. 
Will you please and advise me by return mail if ground¬ 
up-leather is a fertilizer, as there are car loads of it ground 
up and mixed in with other fertilizers and sold for such. 
J. L. 
The following answer was obtained from the Pennsylvania 
State College. 
While ground leather contains rather large quantities 
of nitrogen but is present in a very unavailable form and in 
the raw state is looked upon as an adulterant in a com¬ 
mercial fertilizer. After such material has been treated 
with sulphuric acid in process of wet mixing, however, the 
nitrogen that it contains becomes much more available. 
It would not be possible for a farmer to give it that treat¬ 
ment. 
HARDY GRAPES FOR THE NORTHWEST 
Wm. Pfaender, Jr., of New Ulm, Minn., writes: It 
may be of interest to many of your readers to know that 
we now have grapes in Minnesota, that can be successfully 
grown without winter protection. The standard varieties, 
such as Concord, Moore’s Early and others can be grown in 
Minnesota, but a fair crop can only be expected if they are 
well protected during winter. Since several years, however, 
we have a quartette of grapes all of the same parentage— 
being a cross of our native white grape {Vitis Vulpina) and 
the Concord—that are perfectly hardy in our severe winters 
where the thermometer often drops to 20 and 30 degrees 
below zero. 
The wild white grape used as a foundation was very sweet, 
a late bloomer and matured its fruit very early, which is also 
true of the cross above mentioned. The vines drop their 
foliage early and ripen up the wood perfectly, are vigorous 
growers, and annual bearers of a good sized bunch and 
berries nearly as large as those of the Concord. They pro¬ 
duce a red wine of superior quality. I am certain that these 
grapes can be successfully grown much farther north than 
southern Minnesota. They are now being tested near 
Winnepeg, Manitoba. 
SUN-POWER ENGINE 
An interesting report concerning irrigation by sun power is made 
by the British consul at Alexandria, who comments on the arrival from 
Philadelphia of the Shuman sun-heat absorber, which, he says, was 
tested and found to be satisfactory. The plant is being erected at 
Meadi, near Cairo, and will be used to pump water from the Nile.to 
irrigate the surrounding land. Several improvements have been added 
to reduce the cost of working. In Egypt both coal and other kinds of 
fuel are e.xpensive, says the consul, but plenty of sunshine can be relied 
upon at all times of the year, so that the experiments with this practical 
sun-power plant will be of much interest to agricultural enterprise.— 
From Daily Consular Trade Report No. 220. 
