At twelve years of age they will bring an annual income of
$3 each, and this income will steadily increase for ten or fifteen
years. At the time of writing, February, 1903, they are good for $1 a
year, which is five per cent of $20.
Would I take $20 apiece for these trees? Not much, though that would
mean $70,000. I do not know where I could place $70,000 so that it
would pay five per cent this year, six per cent next year, and twenty
per cent eight or ten years from now. Of course, $70,000 would be an
exorbitant price to pay for an orchard like mine; but it must be
remembered that I am old and cannot wait for trees to grow.
If a man will buy land at $50 or $60 an acre, plant it to apple trees
(not less than sixty-five to the acre), and bring these trees to an age
when they will produce fruit to the value of $1.50 each, they will not
have cost more than $1.50 per tree for the land, the trees, and the
labor.
I am too old to begin over again, and I wish to see a handsome income
from my experiment before my eyes are dim; but why on earth young men do
not take to this kind of investment is more than I can see.
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