THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 175 



EXPENSE OF HARVESTING. 



The drying, or rather harvesting expense as a whole, inehiding 

 everything, amounts approximate!}' to $50 per ton of dried fruit. 

 (It requires about five tons of green fruit to make one ton of dried.) 

 The expenses are as follows : 



Picking $12.00 per tou dried fruit 



Pitting 25.00 per ton dried fruit 



Other expenses 14.00 per tou dried fruit 



The $14 would include what is spent for hauling, sulphuring, dry 

 ground work, spreading of trays and taking up of dried fruit, also 

 interest on money invested in trays and other equipment and the 

 depreciation of same. Trays 3 feet by 6 feet cost 40 cents each, and 

 about 100 trays are required for each ton of dried fruit, each tray 

 being used about three times per season. 



PITTING SHED EQUIPMENT. 



The writer has spent considerable thought in increasing and improv- 

 ing the equipment in the pitting shed to gain greater efficiency. Some 

 of this equipment is original. On another page is a diagram designed 

 to show the plan as here outlined. 



The shed is 75 feet long by 26 feet wide, and gives ample room 

 for twenty (3 feet by 6 feet) tables, each of which will aecoumiodate 

 two pitters. It is built of galvanized iron with open walls. The shed 

 should always run the longest way east and west, so that the summer 

 sun will not bother so much by shining into the shed. 



During the winter the trays are stored in the shed and the tight 

 roof keeps them dry and free from mold. Along the south side is 

 a narrow platform about three feet above the ground, which facilitates 

 unloading and the distribution of the boxes to tlie tables in the shed. 

 Each load is spread out on this shelf so that the tray boys never have 

 to carry a box farther than the width of the shed and they do not have 

 to stoop to pick it up. 



The tables are 3 feet by 6 feet, 30 inches high, and at each end 

 is a shelf for a box of fruit. These shelves are just low enough 

 for the top of the box to come even wdth the bottom of the tray on 

 top, so that the boxes do not interfere with the removal of the trays, 

 yet the fruit is within easy reach of the pitter in case the tray boy 

 does not dump a sufficient amount of fruit on the end of the tray 

 next to the pitter. These shelves, as well as the unloading platform, 

 save a great deal of time and it is possible, therefore, to give better 

 service to the pitters with a smaller number of trays. 



The shed boss is provided with aluminum coins made for the pur- 

 pose and each time an empty box is taken from a table one of these 

 is handed to the pitter. At noon and night these are turned in to the 

 boss again and credit given each pitter for the number she has. This 

 system has been found easier on the boss and more accurate than the 

 card and punch system usually used. 



The car track runs through the middle of the shed. When a car 

 is loaded it is pushed out on the turntable by the tray boys and 

 an empty car is brought in from the other end of the shed, where 

 all empty cars are left after they come in from the drying ground. 

 A piece of wood suspended from a rafter of the pitting shed indicates 



2—16579 



