Bringing To Bearing Age

The first of the following tables is given

as a sample of one year's records, that of 1907, on this orchard in

order to show both the manner in which the costs were made up and what

the items amounted to in one year:



FIELD A--1907. FIFTH YEAR



Total Hours Cost Cost

hours Total per acre per per

Operation Man Horse cost Man Horse acre 100

Mulching 3 6 $1.05 .455 .91 $0.16 $0.22

Pruning 11 ... 1.65 1.67 ... .25 .35

Cultivating 1 7 7 1.75 1.06 1.06 .26 .38

Cultivating 2 10 10 2.50 1.51 1.51 .38 .54

Cultivating 3 6 6 1.50 .91 .91 .23 .32

Plowing in fall 47 94 16.45 7.12 14.25 2.50 3.52

Banking trees 12 ... 1.80 1.82 ... .27 .39

Harrowing 21 42 7.35 3.18 6.36 1.11 1.58

--- --- ------ ----- ----- ----- -----

Total lab. cost. 117 165 $34.05 17.73 25.00 $5.16 $7.30



4 loads manure at $1.50 6.00 .91 1.29

Equipment charge 1.15 .174 .25

Taxes 5.29 .801 1.13

Interest 38.48 5.83 8.23

------ ------- ------

Total cost $84.97 $12.875 $18.20



INCOME, COST AND PROFIT ON BEANS--FIELD A--1907



Income Cost Profit

75 bushels at $1.50 $112.50

31/2 tons pods at $6 21.00 $133.65 $94.50 $38.85



LOSS ON FIELD A--1907



Total Per acre

Net income from beans $38.85 $5.89

Cost of orchard 84.97 12.87

------ ------

Loss $46.12 $6.98



A summary of the cost of the orchard, the net income from the crop,

the income from the orchard and the profit and loss by years for the

eight years follows:



SUMMARY OF COSTS FOR EIGHT YEARS, FIELD A



Net Income

Crop income from Cost of 6.6 acres

Year grown from crop orchard orchard Profit Loss

1903 Corn $ 15.17 ... $109.87 ... $ 94.70

1904 Beans 42.57 ... 216.16 ... 173.59

1905 Beans 43.13 ... 83.78 ... 40.65

1906 Beans 120.90 ... 80.14 $40.76 ...

1907 Beans 38.85 ... 84.97 ... 46.12

1908 Corn 37.68 ... 64.22 ... 26.54

1909 Oats and

strawberries 100.61 $27.88 84.73 43.76 ...

1910 Wheat 60.70 38.65 96.35 3.00 ...

------- ------ ------- ------ -------

Totals $459.61 $66.53 $620.22 $87.52 $381.60



Net loss on field for eight years $294.08

Average annual loss 38.76

Total cost an acre, exclusive of income 124.27

Total cost an acre, including income 44.55

Total net cost a hundred trees 62.97

Total net cost an apple tree 1.37

Total net cost an apple tree, exclusive of income 3.80

Total labor cost an acre 35.09

Total cash cost an acre 89.19



We find that this orchard has cost $124.27 an acre during the eight

years of its life, but that the $79.72 an acre of crops grown in the

orchard has brought this cost down to $44.55 an acre. It is safe to

say that the orchard would have cost even more than it did had it not

been for the crops, for many operations charged directly to the crops

would of necessity have been charged to the trees. The cost a hundred

trees does not mean much, as it often happens that not all the trees

are covered by an operation and as the number of trees an acre greatly

affects these costs.



We have another and younger orchard upon which a record has been kept.

This orchard of five acres contains 126 standard apple trees,

"filled" both ways with 375 peach trees. It was set in the spring of

1908, so that the trees have grown four seasons. The permanents

(apples) are set 36 by 40 feet apart, so that, with the peaches

between, the trees stand 18 by 20 feet apart. A crop of beans has been

grown between the tree rows each season. The first season a full seven

rows, twenty-eight inches apart, were planted in the wider space; the

second and third season six rows, and the last season only four rows.

The crop has been very good each year until the last. One application

of manure, one crop of clover and one seeding of rye have been plowed

under, and in addition a liberal amount of commercial fertilizer has

been used with each crop. This year the peach trees bore their first

crop. The record of the four years is as follows:



SUMMARY OF THE COST OF A FOUR-YEAR-OLD APPLE AND PEACH ORCHARD



Net Income

Crop income from Cost of

Year grown from crop orchard orchard Profit Loss



1908 Beans $63.37 ... $130.12 ... $62.75

1909 Beans 66.70 ... $85.03 ... 18.33

1910 Beans 79.81 ... 83.39 ... 3.58

1911 Beans 53.20 $46.05 61.95 $37.30 ...

------- ------ ------- ------ ------

Totals $267.08 $46.05 $360.49 $37.30 $84.66



Total cost an acre, exclusive of income $72.10

Total cost an acre, including income 9.47

Total net cost a hundred trees 4.73

Total net cost an apple tree .376

Total net cost an apple tree, exclusive of income 2.86



These figures show a still lower cost of growing trees to bearing age.

After paying all expenses connected with the growing of the trees,

including the interest on the land at $150 an acre, and deducting the

net profit from the crops of beans and the sales from the first crop

of peaches we find that the growing of the trees has cost us $9.47 an

acre, or 371/2 cents an apple tree at four years old. Had no crop been

grown in the orchard it would have cost us at least $62.89 an acre

after deducting the income from the first peach crop. The peach trees

are now at full bearing age, and should show a good profit from this

time on. Possibly at five and certainly at six years of age this

orchard will entirely have paid for itself. The only possible further

charge which could be made against this orchard is the crop income

which might have been obtained from the land had the trees not been

there. We estimated that the presence of the trees cut down the crop

of beans from the land 30 per cent. As the average net income from

beans was $13.35 an acre this would amount to $4 an acre a year--an

insignificant sum.