etc., the cost of spraying material, packages, fertilizers,
etc.

There are many ways of keeping such a record. Any method which
accomplishes the result in a convenient and accurate manner is a good
one. It will usually be found necessary to keep a cash account or day
book, entering all items in enough detail to make possible their later
distribution to the proper field or crop, and also to keep a diary of
all labor. Any form of diary will answer the purpose, but one which
has ruled columns at the right side of the page in which to indicate
the crop or field worked upon, and the number of hours worked is more
convenient and therefore more desirable.

AN EXAMPLE.--For a number of years the author has kept such records on
his farm in western New York. As an illustration of the method and in
order to give the reader a general idea as to what the costs above
referred to are likely to be we venture to give the following tables.
It must be remembered, however, that practically everyone of the above
mentioned factors varies with the conditions under which the orchard
is managed and that these figures are not _an_ average but _one_
average and on one farm. True averages are arrived at only by bringing
together a large number of figures. In any case, the question of cost
is essentially an individual problem on every farm. These figures are
of value only as an example of the method and the cost on one farm
under its own special conditions.

The orchard for which the following figures were given was set in the
spring of 1903, and the records begin with that year and end with
1910, covering a period of eight years in all. Throughout this period
other crops have been grown between the tree rows, thereby offsetting
to a large extent the cost of growing the orchard. Forty trees at the
north end of the orchard are pears, but they have received
substantially the same treatment as the apples and have not affected
the cost. In 1904, 211 plum trees were set as fillers one way. The
apple trees were set 36 by 36 feet apart, so that, filled one way, the
trees stand 18 by 36 feet apart. The orchard is ten rows wide and
forty-seven long, containing in all 467 trees.

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