THE COSTS OF MARKETING THE APPLE 

 CROP OF 1923 



By LoRiAN P. Jeffeuson 



This study was undertaken in order to determine the costs of putting apples 

 on the market, what grades may be marketed with profit, the margin over costs 

 of marketing returned to the grower from sales by various methods, and the 

 type of container most desirable. 



Information was collected by personal visits to growers, 65 individual reports 

 being obtained beside that from the Nashoba packing house. 



No attempt was made to secure data from ail growers in any section, but 

 those growers visited were representative. Data were obtained in four sec- 

 tions of the state — Franklin County; Granville, a small and comparatively 

 new area near the Connecticut line in Berkshire County; the Newbury section 

 in the northeastern corner of the state; and an extensive area centering about 

 Littleton, but including many widely scattered growers of Middlesex and Wor- 

 cester Counties. 



The data used were sometimes taken from records, bills of sale, etc., kept 

 by the grower, and sometimes — more often indeed — they were thoughtful esti- 

 mates of the i3roducer. Most of those visited gave such estimates for at least 

 a part of the information sought, altliough many had some sort of record on 

 which the figures were based. These figures were carefully tabulated, omitting 

 the few questionable returns. 



It was found that, owing to wide ranges in the reports, averages were not 

 always representative of the expenditures for various items. In these cases 

 the most common cost was used as typical. Hence the tabulation summarizing 

 the costs must be considered merely as a fairly representative list of costs. 

 All averages are weighted except when otherwise stated. 



No attempt was made to discover the cost of growing the fruit. It must 

 therefore be recognized that the "margins" or "returns" considered throughout 

 the study are to be regarded as profits only after the costs of growing are 

 deducted from the "margin over cost of marketing." 



One grower said that apples could not be sold at a profit unless the price 

 obtained was more than $3.50 a barrel. Another said that it cost $2.00 to 

 grow and market a bushel of apples. Obviously a wide range exists in the 

 individual costs of production as well as in the costs of marketing. A dif- 

 ference of 83 cents a bushel appears between the two cases cited. 

 Grades. 



The law of the state provides for three grades of apples — Fancy, A and B 

 — and an ungraded class. In reality, the apples known as ungraded are of 

 two kinds : those which are sold as they come from the trees, culls only having 

 been removed; and the inferior grade which remains after Fancy, A and B 

 grades — any or all of them — are taken out. The term "ungraded" as applied 

 to this inferior lot of apples is a misnomer, and some other designation should 

 be devised. 



The growers visited reported 214,153 bushels of apples sold from the crop 

 of 1923. Seventy-five per cent of tliese were sorted and graded. The grades 

 appeared in the following proportions : 



