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As with many Massachusetts growers, the New York apple growers are concerned 

 with the nitrogen levels in their Mcintosh orchards. It was of interest to note 

 that for the Peru area (Champlain) Dr. Arthur Burrell considered the nitrogen 

 level of 1.80 to 1.90 per cent for bearing Mcintosh was optimum even though the 

 climate is more favorable for color development than in many other Mcintosh 

 producing areas. In Massachusetts, we have set an optimum of 1.80 to 2.00 per 

 cent nitrogen for bearing Mcintosh. 



Eighty-five to 90 per cent of the acreage in the Peru fruit growing area is 

 planted to Mcintosh which presents a problem at harvest. Large crews are 

 necessary to harvest the fruit in prime condition. 



There is little interest in semi-dwarf trees and Red Delicious in the Peru 

 area because of the fear of winter injury. 



Bulk Boxes - New York apple growers are gradually switching from field crates to 

 bulk boxes, because of the savings in container cost, labor, transportation and 

 storage space. However, many of the growers are cautious in the adaption of this 

 type of container because of cost of water dumpers and driers, space requirements 

 of this equipment and their dislike to use grading machines for Mcintosh apples. 



The question of bulk boxes is foremost in the minds of many apple growers 

 throughout the New England-New York area. Growers are interested in the possible 

 savings with their use but at present if water dumpers are to be used, they are 

 feasible only in the larger packing sheds. Over-mechanization of our smaller 

 packing sheds must be avoided. It is very easy to over-invest in equipment 

 without obtaining sufficient increase in efficiency to warrant the investment. 



Packing Sheds - The degree of mechanization of the New York packing houses varies 

 considerably from area to area within the state. In the Peru area apples are 

 hand packed directly from field crates and very little packing equipment is used. 

 Packing houses in the Hudson Valley area are using apple sorting and sizing 

 equipment for regular storage apples but some go to hand packing of CA Mcintosh. 



Xa the hand packing operations, individual packers averaged 70 to 80 bushels 

 of packed fruit per day. On the other hand, it appeared that the per woricer 

 output of packed fruit in some highly mechanized packing sheds Was not much higher. 



A recent report on packing apples in the Northeast (Marketing Research Report 

 No. 53) stated that all-manual packing operations were the most efficient in 

 comparison to mechanized packing operations as long as skilled packers can be 

 obtained, the wage rate remained low, and the daily volume did not exceed the 

 space available for packing stations. "Should the cost of labor rise, the manual 

 operations would rapidly become more costly and the mechanized packing lines would 

 become relatively more efficient. Or, if skilled labor should become difficult 

 to hire, the manual packing line would become less efficient, because it requires 

 greater skills of its workers than do the other more mechanical lines." 



Several efficient hand grading operations were observed in New York and some 

 of the procedures and packing area arrangements if adapted by some Massachusetts 

 growers would increase the efficiency of the hand packing operation. The 

 arrangement of the work stations for the individual packers in some of the New York 



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