Variety 1921 1920 1919 1918 Limas. Hend. Bush. 1922 1917 1916 1915 1914 Blackeyes.. 300,000 380,000 180,000 175,000 463,000 300,000 275,000 405,000 150,000 Red Kidneys.. Totals. 60,000 60,000 30,000 35,000 26,000 20,000 25,000 20,000 9,000 25,000 290,400 200,000 125,000 98,000 125,000 2,835,000 2,346,000 1,800,000 2,970,000 5,150,400 4,980,000 3,660,000 3,868,000 2,905,000 600,000 721,000 1,200,000 725,000 650,000 500,000 125,000 130,000 135,000 Average production of Walnuts in California for the past eleven years was 16,846 Average production of Almonds in California for the past eleven years was 4,555 tons per year. COST OF PRODUCING APRICOTS By WARREN E. HYDE, Chairman of Voting Board California Prune and Apricot Growers' Association Published by Permission. In the following tables are given the costs of raising apricots and the cost of drying them afterwards. They are set forth in two tables so that any grower may see what our experience has been first in bringing the apricot to the stage of picking and, second, in picking, handling, drying and delivering to the packing house. These figures are taken from the books of four apricot growers who are very careful in keeping accurate cost of operations, and are based on average-sized apricot trees with average of 90 trees to the acre. Of course, there will be variations in this because of more or less number of trees to acre, and also because of size of trees, but these figures are about accurate. COST PER ACRE TO PRODUCE 1 TON APRICOTS Pruning and brush burning. Digging borers, white washing. Plowing.. Discing 6 times at $2.00. Slabbing once. Spraying 2 times. Checking.. Irrigating once. Fertilizer.. Thinning. Taxes. $22.50 3.00 4.00 12.00 1.00 36.00 2.00 21.00 5.00 27.00 7.50 70.00 12.50 $223.50 Interest at 7% on $1,000. Depreciation complete in 60 years. Smudging and overhead not calculated. 5-ton yield per acre. per green ton 44.70 Taking the items one by one as listed: The pruning and brush burning, of course, would apply to varied sizes of trees, but the $22.50 is a very conservative figure, taking in consideration the usual method of pruning apricot trees; digging of borers includes not only digging and taking borers out of trees, but also the filling of holes around trees and white washing of trees; plowing $4.00 per acre is common commercial charge when done by commercial tractor owner; discing at 6 times includes 2 or 3 discings before irrigating and as many after; slabbing is only figured at one operation; spraying two times allows one oil spray and one bordeaux spray; checking is one checking for the irrigation; irrigation once with charge of $21.00 is based on average flow of water and average charge; item of fertilizer of $5.00, thought was taken in consideration. that some growers do not apply commercial fertilizer whatever, but do use green cover crop method which would make this item if anything below actual cost; the item of thinning was based more particularly on the crop of 1923, which, of course, was a peak crop year; taxes are for the taxes of land and tree improvements on same, and interest is figured at 7 per cent on $1,000 per acre valuation; depreciation is figured on complete depreciation so far as trees are concerned in 60 years; on the item of smudging, this was not figured at all because in Santa Clara Valley it is not the universal practice on account of locations. Of course, in the sections where smudging is common, it amounts to a considerable item. Overhead was not charged up against this account at all but, of course, we all know that we have such an account with which to figure. This makes total of expense items as enumerated of $223.50 per acre, calculating that average crop per acre is 5 tons would make expense per ton of $44.70, or in other words, for a grower to come out even on expenses as enumerated above, he would have to receive that amount for his apricots per ton green. It goes without saying that some of these items will be criticizedsome growers feeling that certain items are too high and others that the same items are too low. A good many growers are in the habit of figuring their plowing discing, slabbing, etc., that are commonly done with the tractor, at actual cost per hour operation, but in these calculations one must take into consideration the depreciation of the machine and also interest on machine and implements. The same objections may be made to the following table which begins where the other leaves off, but experience has indicated that the costs here estimated are pretty nearly correct. It will be noticed that the first table is figured on a per acre basis and the second on a green ton basis. Still going on the 5 tons to the acre yield basis and then allowing, as we have, a shrinkage at the ratio of 5 to 1, it is necessary to estimate that one acre of green fruit will yield one ton of dried fruit. Therefore the total cost of a ton of dried fruit will be $223.50 plus $142.30, or $365.80, as follows: Picking GREEN TON BASIS Distributing boxes in orchard, hauling fruit to dry house. $10.00 .75 1.00 Cutting at 15c per box, 53 boxes per ton. 7.95 Interest on investment, trays, sulphur boxes, boxes, ladders, etc.. 2.10 .17 .50 1.19 $28.46 Shrinkage at 5 to 1 cost per dry ton.... $142.30 But, you say, a grower makes very little money in the best of years on apricots, and loses heavily in ordinary years, if these figures are correct. This is not strictly true, although we will say that, year in and year out, the apricot grower does not make as much as he is supposed to make, nor as much as he himself figures he makes unless he counts in depreciation, interest on his investment, and so on, as we have done in these tables. The fact is that, when the grower sells part of his apricots to the green fruit buyer, part to the canner, and the rest to the association for drying, he does fairly well in a good year. And very few orchardists count on making money on their investment. They love their orchards and their homes and their work, or else they are planning to sell out some day at a substantial profit, therefore, they do not figure very closely. But figures of this sort seem to be helpful and I believe that every grower should keep some sort of cost sheet to know where he stands. STATISTICS ON GROWING PEACHES Figures Furnished by California Peach Growers' Association Average Yield per Acre 47.50 45.00 Thinning and Prices paid to growers of No. 1 canning pears since 1914 are as follows: |