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FIG. 4-Ottawa County peach orchard showing open spreading top and clean culture.

The most serious drawback to better methods is the lack of organization among growers. If orchardists could organize and co-operate it would permit of the use of expert packers and greater quantities from which to pack. The orchard interests, especially of apples, with one or two exceptions, are not as yet centralized enough for organization purposes. The individual orchardist who has attempted the box pack has found, first, that it is a slow and expensive process with inexperienced, and second, that he has not grown his fruit to as high a degee of perfection necessary for best results.

Blemishes of different kinds are too numerous, and sufficient uniformity of size is lacking. There is need of better and more thorough spraying practice, also more severe pruning and thinning to develop better and more uniform size and color.

A National law of importance was recently enacted which standardizes packages and grades for apples. It gives the grower the opportunity to guarantee his pack under prescribed labels and assures the purchaser of the uniform size of the contents. Fruit growers should become familiar with its provisions and take advantage of the possibilities which it offers those who desire to pack carefully and honestly.

DATA ON APPLE CULTURE IN OHIO

WITH TABLES GIVING GROSS AND NET RETURNS AND ESTIMATED COST
OF PRODUCTION.

The impressions received by the novice concerning the profits to be derived from apple culture are often misleading. The returns from orchards usually given in newspaper articles and in real estate literature are usually gross returns, and the prospective orchardist with no experience has but little idea of the cost of production, harvesting, marketing, etc. In order to gather some reliable information concerning these matters as they exist in this State, Mr. C. W. Waid, of this Division, has spent considerable time in interviewing orchardists, collecting and preparing the data and tables given herewith.

A list of questions was mailed to all of the orchardists with whom we were acquainted whom we thought might have some valuable records of yields, gross and net returns, etc. These men were asked to answer the questions as fully as they could and to return the list to this Department. Answers were received from less than fifty per cent. of those to whom the list of questions was sent. Of the reports received, a very large per cent. were on apples. The number who reported on other fruits was so small that we cannot make use of them in this report, but will reserve them for a later report. There are so few orchardists in this State who keep careful records that it is not an easy matter to get together a very large number of authentic reports.

The following table gives the result of our canvass:

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Some of the figures given in Table No. 1 are estimates, rather than actual figures, as some of the growers who sent in reports did not have complete records. The figures were all given, however, by the men who grew and marketed the fruit, and thus should not be far from correct. There certainly is no better source of such information. While we could no doubt get a larger number of reports by continuing to look for growers who keep records, those which we have received are quite generally scattered over the State, and it would seem should give a fairly good idea of what has been done along the line of securing returns from commercial apple growing in Ohio. Most of the reports are from men who have been spraying more or less thoroughly for many years. Nearly all of them have also followed good orchard practice throughout. Those who have not done so have little or nothing to report in the way of profits. There is hardly a grower, however, who thinks he has done as well as he might have done had he been more thorough in his work. These same men will no doubt be able to get better results in the future, as they have the experience and the knowledge of the requirements of the crop and the markets in a greater degree than at any previous time.

The table has been divided into Sections A and B. Section A includes all of the orchards over fifteen years of age, and Section B those fifteen years old or less. The fourteen orchards in Section A have given. an average gross return of about $165 per acre per year, sixty-two per cent of which was net. These averages are given in most cases for a period of five or more years. The five younger orchards have given but $96 gross per acre per year, forty-five per cent., or about forty-three, of which was net. These averages are given for only two or three years.

One of the most striking parts of these records is that only in one case was there any profit reported during the first ten years. The average age at which the trees came into bearing was eleven years. Of course, there was some fruit produced earlier than this in all of the orchards, and in some good crops were secured under ten years, but on an average no crops of importance were produced until after the tenth year. It will also be noted that both the gross and net returns per acre were much greater after the fifteenth year than before.

To those who have formed an opinion of the profits secured by apple growers through the retail prices they have been obliged to pay, or the inflated figures of profits in apple-growing which they may have seen or heard in connection with land-boomers' stories, these figures may seem small. Our purpose in getting out this report is to put before the prospective orchardist facts and figures which will enable him to engage in the apple business with a better knowledge of what he can expect in the way of returns than he otherwise would have. Many men have planted orchards with little knowledge, not only of probable returns, but of the amount required in the way of investment before substantial returns can be expected. Under such circumstances discouragement

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