RESEARCH FROM OTHER AREAS 



(Items Included under this heading are for your information and may not apply to 

 Massachusetts conditions in all instances.) 



Costs and Use of Labor in Harvesting Apples for Fresh Market 



Van Travis and B. F. Stanton, Department of Agricultural Economics, Cornell 

 University in A, E. Res. 63 titled "Costs and Use of Labor in Harvesting Apples 

 for Fresh Market - Hudson Valley, New York, 1959 and 1960" show that despite re- 

 ductions in cost of producing a bushel of apples since 1949, harvest costs have 

 continued to rise. This is shown in the table below taken from their publication. 



Costs in Harvesting and Handling Apples on 

 New York Cost Account Farms (1937-1958) 



Average cost per bushel to: Harvesting Cost 



Grow, Harvest, as Per Cent of 



Period Harvest Store and Sell Total Cost 



Per Cent 



$ .81 17 



1.71 15 



1.31 24 



1.46 23 



1^46 27 



A study was made of the harvest operation on fruit farms in the Hudson 

 Valley during the 1959 and 1960 period. Harvest was considered to include all 

 Jobs associated with picking and moving the apples from the orchard to storage 

 or packing shed. Methods of harvesting apples in the Hudson Valley are similar 

 to those in Massachusetts. Seventy-eight per cent of the 49 growers interviewed 

 in 1960 picked in Wells and Wade buckets which were emptied into standard field 

 crates and hauled to storage in single layers on trailers or trucks. The 

 leveling of boxes took place either in the orchard, when loading, or at the 

 storage. 



Travis and Stanton found that the average labor cost to harvest a bushel of 

 apples in 1960 was similar whether the fruit were hauled in single layers or the 

 palletized system was used. The palletized or stacked system consisted of 

 picking in Wells and Wade buckets which were emptied into field crates on pallets 

 or stacked on trailers prior to hauling. The average labor cost per bushel for 

 the stacked or palletized system was 26 cents with a range in cost from 20 to 36 

 cents. The labor cost for the single layer system averaged 27 cents per bushel 

 with a range of 22 to 35 cents. There was more variation in harvest costs among 

 farms using the same method than between the two systems. 



Picking was the primary cost of harvesting apples being about two-thirds of 

 the labor bill. Most growers paid on a piecework basis with 18 cents the most 

 common rate paid in 1960. 



Supervision, leveling and hauling which are the three other tasks involved 

 in harvesting the apples made up about one- third of the labor bill. Most of the 

 variation in harvesting costs was found to result from differences in the way 



