BETTER FRUIT 



EDITOR: W. H. WALTON 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON— C. I. Lewis. Horticulturist. 



WASHINGTON — Dr. A. L. Melandcr. Entomologist ; 

 O. M. Morris. Horticulturist. Pullman. 



COLORADO — 0. P. Gillette. Director and Entomologist; 

 E. B. House, Irrigation Expert, State Agricultural College. 

 Fort Collins. 



ARIZONA— E. P. Taylor. Horticulturist. Tucson. 



WISCONSIN— Dr. E. D. Ball, Madison. 



MONTANA— H. Thornber, Victor. 



CALIFORNIA— C. W. Woodworth. Entomologist. Berke- 

 ley: W. H. Volck. Entomologist. Wfltsonville : Leon D. 

 Batchelor. Horticulturist. Riverside. 



INDIANA— H. S. Jackson. Pathologist. Lafayette. 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern, Progressive Fruit Growing 



and Marketing. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonian Building 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



All Communications should be addressed and 



Remittances made payable to 



BETTER FRUIT PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Subscription Price: 



In the United States, $2.00 per year in advance. 



Canada and Foreign, including postage, $3.00, 



payable in American exchange. 



Advertising Rates on Application 



Entered as second-class matter April 22, 1918, 



at the Postofflce at Portland, Oregon, under 



the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Volume XV 



Portland, Oregon, July, 1920 



Number 1 



Keeping Production Records by Growers of Small Fruit 



By Wm. E. Schimpf, Secretary Oregon Cranberry Growers' Association 



THE keeping of accurate produc- 

 tion records has always been a se- 

 rious problem to the fruit grower. 

 During the exciting period of the har- 

 vest the best system is liable to be ne- 

 glected and thereupon immediately 

 ceases to be a system and becomes an 

 aggravation. Accurate production rec- 

 ords are desired by every fruit grower, 

 and the problem has been to secure a 

 system which would be accurate and 

 yet so simple as to be practically auto- 

 matic. 



During the harvest season everything 

 seems to be very much of a mad race. 

 Where up to this time on a cranberry 

 bog one or two people have been em- 

 ployed on a twenty-five acre bog, now 

 a hundred or more are needed. Pickers 

 of all ages, races and creeds assemble 

 to gather the festive little berry. With 

 this army of people we have the same 

 old problems. The fruit grower has a 

 strenuous though not altogether unin- 

 teresting time during this exciting pe- 

 riod. 



Now in order to know what he is 

 doing, he should know what he is pro- 

 ducing. It is just as important to the 

 cranberry grower to keep accurate pro- 

 duction records as it is to the dairyman. 

 Fruit growing is a business just as 

 much as selling hats. No one would 

 think of engaging in any mercantile 

 business such as selling hats without 

 opening up a set of books. Fruit grow- 

 ers are willing to do this, and have 

 been anxious to have some simple meth- 

 od devised which would really be of 

 assistance to them in the keeping of 

 such accurate records. One advantage 

 the fruit grower has over his fellow 

 business man, and that is he is selling 

 but one commodity. 



The average fruit grower is well 

 above the average person in intelligence 

 and it is not from ignorance of their 

 value that precise production records 

 are kept, nor is it from unwillingness. 

 When the end of the harvest day comes 

 the grower feels that he has earned a 

 well deserved rest, and though he 

 knows that he should tabulate the re- 

 sults of his day's work, he is usually so 

 tired physically that the very thought 

 of bookkeeping appalls him. 



A system that in itself would be so 

 simple as to keep its own record, was 



the problem which demanded solution. 

 One of the members of the Oregon 

 Cranberry Growers' Association has de- 

 vised just such a system. It has been 

 in use by him for three years, and last 

 season was adopted by every member 

 of the association. The dominant fea- 

 ture of the system is the use of conse- 

 cutively numbered tickets similar to 

 those used in the movies. At the be- 

 ginning of the picking day it is only 

 necessary to make a memorandum of 

 the opening number for the day, and 

 to record the closing number at night. 



This in itself gives a correct record 

 of the number of boxes picked during 

 the day, and shows what the picking 

 cost should be. The difference between 

 the number on the ticket at the end of 

 the ribbon in the morning and number 

 on the ticket at the end of the ribbon 

 in the evening, must agree with the 

 number of boxes taken from the pick- 

 ers. Slight discrepancies will occur, 

 and these discrepancies are at once 

 called to the attention of the checker, 

 who gives out the tickets. There can 

 be no dispute, and there is none. An 

 explanation should be had. It will hap- 

 pen that a ticket too many will be given 

 out by the checker, but this fact is im- 

 mediately recognized by the grower. 



Checkers really like the system, for 

 they know that their work is automat- 

 ically audited. Not only is this system 

 a perfect check upon the person giving 

 out the tickets, but it can be used as 

 a check upon the picker as well. One 

 bright young lady who was giving out 

 tickets for a Clatsop cranberry grower, 

 would always ask to see all of the tick- 

 ets of the picker whenever the question 

 arose as to whether a ticket had been 

 given for the last box or not. An ex- 

 amination of the tickets usually showed 

 one ticket with a number just preceding 

 the one on the ticket roll, and the picker 

 was satisfied. 



Pickers' tickets can be obtained from 

 the moving picture supply houses, they 

 are printed in various colors, and can 

 be had with the name of the grower, 

 the denomination and of course the se- 

 rial number. Stores in the immediate 

 locality are glad to cash these tickets, 

 as they bring business to their places 

 of business. Later the grower takes 

 them from the storekeeper in lots, is- 

 suing his check for this purpose. If 



such an arrangement can be made it is 

 of decided value to the grower, as it 

 will mean that he must keep but little 

 cash on hand. 



Sometimes it is advisable to furnish 

 «ome store with a working capital of a 

 sufiicient amount so that the store- 

 keeper will not have to use too much 

 of his own funds. From time to time 

 as the tickets come in to the store they 

 can be taken up by the grower in good 

 sized lots. This system has the ad- 

 vantage of keeping the picking money 

 distinct and separate from the grower's 

 own cash. Every grower realizes the 

 difficulty in keeping his own money dis- 

 tinct from the picking money during 

 the rush of the harvesting season. The 

 grower usually gets all of his wife's 

 spare change, as well as his children's 

 savings into his harvest fund before he 

 realizes it. 



With a system of serially numbered 

 tickets, the difference between the first 

 number of the season and the number 

 left on the ribbon at the end of the 

 season, indicates the exact number of 

 boxes picked during the season. This al 

 once shows him his harvesting cost, 

 that is, it shows him exactly how much 

 money he is to pay out for fruit picked. 

 Tickets used by the cranberry growers 

 are like the cut below. 



Oregon Cranberry 

 Growing Co. 



Oregon Cranberry 

 Growing Co. 



Pickers' Ticket. Pickers' Ticket. 



\ /!\ / 



In connection with these tickets a 

 daily report sheet is used by the cran- 

 berry growers of Clatsop County. This 

 report has a space for recording the 

 first ticket given out in the morning. 

 and the last in the evening, a cluck in 

 the way of the actual count of the num- 

 ber of boxes taken into the warehouse. 

 Distribution of the costs of picking, 

 trucking, checking and other harvesting 

 costs can be made on this daily sheet 

 if it is so desired. 



Practically this same sheet is used for 

 the season's report. To make out a re- 

 port for the entire season will take but 

 little longer than to make out the daily 

 report. The tickets given out by the 

 checker to the pickers have k> i 

 on numbering themselves throi 

 the entire season, and il is but a matter 



