- 14 - find that petitioners' apple orchard activity is an activity carried on in a manner substantially similar to other activities of the same nature which are profitable. Petitioner testified that he made several changes in the manner of operating the orchard. For example, he discontinued spraying ground-up insects on the trees as a method of pest control because it was too labor intensive. He also changed his ground cover from a fescue type to a clover type because the clover returns more nitrogen to the ground, allowing him to forgo chemical fertilization. Finally, he replaced the overhead- irrigation system he had installed previously with a ground-level system. Although these changes may have reduced petitioners' labor burden, there is no evidence that the changes were made so that the activity would become more profitable, or that the changes were the abandonment of unprofitable methods. For instance, petitioner testified that the ground-up insect method is an effective method of pest control, but he abandoned it because it was too much work. Petitioner did not provide any evidence of the cost effectiveness of his present method of pest control compared to the abandoned method. Nor did petitioner proffer any evidence that he was actually using chemical fertilizers before he changed the type of ground cover; therefore, there is no evidence that the change was an abandonment of an unprofitablePage: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
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