"The crops of corn raised between the young apple trees will amply take care of any expense in raising this orchard to the bearing age. The first year one would not lose any corn, the second year only one row, the third year possibly two rows, the fourth year not over three rows, the fifth year about the same, and so on till the end of the seventh year. I would cease cropping ground entirely and expect to get some returns the eighth year.
"As to profits to N derived from the orchard, can only give my experience in the Arkansas valley. When my 2,000 apple trees were nine years old, the crop netted $90 per acre. Next year we did not spray and lost half the crop by codlin-moth. The third year we sprayed part of the trees four times and part twice, and the part sprayed four times (these trees being twelve years old) dropped scarcely any fruit and it packed over 75 per cent No. 1 ; these are now bringing $1.25 per bushel. The better parts of the orchards netted $150 per acre. We figure that spraying, picking, sorting, packing, hauling to storage and loading in the car cost us, including the package, thirty-five to forty cents per bushel box, with labor at $1.75 to $2 for an average picker. In this lo cality, wheat on the same kind of land might aver age twenty bushels to the acre and the average price be about sixty cents. Some land will produce thirty to fifty bushels." Market problems.
In a general article, it is impossible to give spe cific practical advice on the harvesting and market ing of fruits, for the practices differ with each fruit and sometimes with the community. Yet it is possible to make statements of points of view.
If a crop is worth raising with much labor and care, it is equally worth marketing. It is perhaps unusual that one man is equally competent in the growing and the selling. The professional sales man seems to be a necessity. He can usually market the products more effectively and cheaply than the general grower can. This may or may not apply to the grower of very choice and special products, that are used by a particular and per sonal trade : in such cases, the grower may put his products directly in the consumer's hands.
Much is said about the necessity of growing a fancy product, but this carries with it the condition that there are special means of marketing it. An
unusually good article of fruit, put on the general market, usually does not pass under the owner's name or mark, and it is likely to be lost in the commoner grades; or if better prices are realized on the open market, the dealer may be the one who receives most of the extra reward. The value of grades that are much above the general market stock is secured when tha grower can make a sale while his name is still associated with the product. If there is profit in growing very special-class fruit for limited markets, there is also profit in growing staple kinds for the staple prices, if one can cheapen and economize the cost of production and if he has sufficient quantity to give volume to the business.
The above consider ations determine very largely the question of the size and style of package. That is, the package is not fundamental ; it is incidental to the kind of market that is to be reached. With the increasing demand for high-class products, the small, carefully graded package is coming into greater use. It is true, also, that the attractive ness of the package will stimulate sales, but, as already indicated, this advantage accrues to the grower chiefly when he has his own hand on the marketing of his products.
Merchandising of all kinds has established new ideals and developed new values by the attention that has been given to grading and packing. It is not many years ago that boots and shoes were shipped in bulk in large cases. The small package is now a feature of trade ; and each package con tains only one grade of goods. Before the fruit grower can establish a special market, he must develop a clear conception of grades. Usually, only two grades are made in fruits,—the salable and the unsalable. Of the salable part we may yet make two to four grades in some kinds of fruits. A first-class grade comprises only fruits that are physically perfect and are typical of the kind. First-class fruits are always in demand, whatever the state of the general market ; and some one should be able to find the customer who wants it.