Cost of Production
There are a few vegetables or fruits where the cost of production and
the price received are more variable than with the tomato. The cost per
acre for raising the fruit varies with the conditions of soil,
facilities for doing the work economically and with the season, while
that of marketing the product varies still more. Under usual conditions,
the growing of an acre of tomatoes and the gathering and marketing of
the fruit will cost from $18 to $90, of which from 15 to 40 per cent. is
spent in fertilizing and preparing the ground, 5 to 10 per cent. for
plants, 20 to 30 per cent. for cultivation, and 25 to 40 per cent. for
gathering and handling the fruit. The last item, of course, varies
somewhat with, but not in proportion to, the amount of the crop, as it
costs proportionately less to gather a large than a small crop, and for
canners' use than for market.
The expense of shipping and marketing the crop varies so greatly
according to the conditions and methods that I do not attempt to state
the amount. The total yield of fruit runs from 200 to 600 or 700 bushels
to the acre, a 200-bushel crop of tomatoes comparing as to amount with
one of 25 bushels of wheat and a 700-bushel crop of tomatoes with one of
60 bushels of wheat; with the best and wisest cultivation and under the
most favorable conditions one can as reasonably hope for one as for the
other. Of this total yield, from 10 to 25 per cent. of the fruit should
be such as, because of earliness and quality, can be sold as extras, and
there is usually from 5 to 10 per cent., and sometimes a much larger per
cent., which should be rejected as unsalable. The selected fruit should
net from $1 to $5 a bushel, the common from 30 to 75 cents--making the
returns for a 200-bushel yield well sold in a nearby market $70 to $350,
and proportionately larger, for a better yield. In practice I have known
of crops which gave a profit above expenses of over $1,000 an acre. This
came, however, from exceptionally favorable conditions and skilled
marketing, and I have known of many more crops where, though the fruit
was equally large and well grown, the profit was less than $100.
In this country a greenhouse is seldom used solely for the growing of
tomatoes, but other crops--such as lettuce--are grown in connection with
the tomatoes, so that it is impracticable to give the cost of
production. As grown at the Ohio state experiment station--and the crop
ripened in late spring or early summer and sold on the market of smaller
cities--greenhouse tomatoes have yielded about two pounds a square foot
of glass and brought an average price of 12 cents per pound. In other
cases yields as high as 10 pounds a foot of glass and an average price
of 40 cents a pound have been reported.