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When you walk into a shed and see a worker pick up apples with her right hand 

 and deposit them on her left arm until she has eight or ten and then turn to 

 the box and place them one by one in the box, you begin to wonder just where 

 is the management'. Automatic filling is being perfected for tray packing. 

 Certainly automatic jumble filling would be much easier to perfect and thus 

 eliminate much of the labor in apple packing. 



So far I have said nothing about machine bagging. This is a highly ex- 

 plosive area with one packer advocating one make and another some other brand. 

 We have conducted extensive tests on each of the common types of machines. 

 The differences in output when operated under optimum conditions is minor 

 compared with variations due to the method of operation. Therefore rather 

 than discuss machine differences I will concentrate on operational differences. 



"One of the common mistakes made in using bagging machines is that the 

 operator is required to stand. In all our comparisons there was a substantial 

 gain in efficiency when the operator was sitting rather than standing. In- 

 creased output ranged from 14 to 16 per cent depending on the type of machine. 

 It should also be pointed out that the added fatigue of standing was not 

 included in the comparison which makes the advantage of sitting greater. Sit- 

 ting helps force a routine and serves to avoid waste motion. Of course sitting 

 is not practicable with one operator running a double-head machine. 



"This brings up the question of using one or two operators on double 

 headed machines. The loss in output having one operator use one head instead 

 of two amounts to only 6 per cent. Considering machine investment and crew 

 organization the advantages are in favor of single head operation. 



"The work station must of course be designed for either sitting or standing. 

 The location of bag supplies and take away belts will differ to some degree 

 for the two positions. Packers pay far too little attention to the location of 

 bag supplies, stuff ers and take-away devices and these make for many ineffi- 

 ciencies in fruit packing. 



"In general it can be said that finger type bag heads are slower to 

 operate than dump type heads. There is also the advantage of less bag, loss 

 from tearing. The advantages of the dump type head over finger type is far 

 less than many growers report. It runs somewhere around 10 per cent. 



"Automatic feeding has advantages in output over manual feeding but in 

 many instances the methods employed by packers do not take full advantage 

 of this feature. When the machine waits on the packer automatic feeding 

 loses some of its advantage. 



"I should point out that it is not essential to use bagging machines to 

 operate at reasonably low cost. Some hand bagging operations with experienced 

 operators can give the best of the machines a run for their money, but I 

 emphasize that far more skills are required. High output hand bagging opera- 

 tions are usually characterized by either family labor or piece work pay scales. 



