The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-08
cosr OF APPLES.
How Much II Takes to Raise One
Barrel Of Fruit.

A Nova Scotia correspondent OF
the Rural New Yorker figures out tho
cost Of barrel Of apples. saying
that a loose way to figure is to COM
pare gross results without giving
any data as to market conditions.
local buying, scarcity ard cost OF the
extras" in fertilizer and labor II
is the net returns after paying fair
interest on capital which make one
system of growing better than an
other, In Nova Scotia good clean
land In pleasant neighborhood Is
worth from $50 to $40 an acre,
sometimes with buildings and some
times without. Other farms equally
good, but four or fve miles away,
Will only cost S15 an acre. Young
men get $40 month and board,
which is worth SS a month, for the
seven summer months. Good, care
full teamsters get 81 to 81 more.
Taxes are light Laws have been
passed which fix definite standards
for apple barrels and for grades.
Our fruit inspectors do as much to
enforce this law as is consistent
with an otherwise slack code of
commercial practice. Besides, or
charding makes people keen, and
the sharpers get prune back every
year or two.
Bone meal costs $26 to $50 ;acid
phosphate. S18; muriate of potash,
$45; nitrate OF soda, s63; sulphate OF
ammonia, s67; potato fertilizer, $31 so;
basic Stag, 500, cash same spring.
And here let me say my expert
ments on orchard with and without
fertilizer have not shown any In
crease In crop on good 20-year.old
orchard from fertilizer, when the
soil was in a good enough condition
al start TO grow a crimson clover
crop. So in the two-acre orchard OF
which I give figures out of so trees,
10 trees only have been allowed 100
pounds OF a potato complete fertil-
izer each year, for the last four
years. AS fertllizing is to a great ex-
tent a science Of trial and error, |
have this year shifted from complete
to a phosphoric acid fertilizer on the
same 10 trees. Unhappily the trees
without fertilizer have borne heav-
Ter than the same variety fertilized,
so as it is only one bag on two acres
and that seems a handicap, / do
Eot take Il into account.
A good team costs 5000 apiece for
i2OO-pound horses. and | allow $125
each for grain and hay. In winter
york is slack, but for two years my
team worked in lumber woods, get
ling 2la months board, and earn.
ing $50 net for team per year. An.
other man had horse killed by a
tree without compensation. Team
work In spring costs by the day,
when possible to get, from 1925 for
lO00-pound horses to $3.50 for 1900
pound team and driver Cost OF
working each per acre in representa-
tive Nova Scotia soil:-
Interest on one acre land and
trees, allowing compound in.
terest from one year to 10
years on labor and capital,
S240 at per cent $1,000
Pruning and hauling brush.. rs
Flowing IA acre per day at SO 240
Narrowing s times at 80 cents 400
Picking stones each year. ... 75
Seed IS pounds crimson clover
at 10 cents. ts..,.,........... 1S0
Spraying three times (no San
Jose scale,) tools and labor. ESQ
200 gallons Bordeaux, two
pounds Paris green.......... 1.8O
ioldl '''''''''..'..'. $4,000
To show what this produces | have
two acres with so trees now % years
old, set in 1886. For its first II
years II was occasionally potatoed
with l5 tons of manure an acre and
occasionally hayed. have taken
on one crop of hay in 1908. but will
not do II again My figures are in
06quart Canadian barrels, govern
ment standard, apples shaken down:
l904-S0 trees 1S yrs old. 1860 bbls
l9O5-S0 trees 10 yrs old. 71.35 bbls
190G-S0 trees 20 yrs old. 1870 bbls
lsO7-'S0 trees 2l yrs old. 24S.3l bbls
Total, 2 acres for yrs. 61446 bbls