78 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 240 



Stone picking is an annual operation on most of these liill fanns. The stones 

 must be removed every time a field is plowed. From 2 to 4 hours of man 

 labor per acre usually seems to be suflBcient. 



Differences in labor in disking and smoothing were largely due to the num- 

 ber of times the operations were performed. The usual practice is to double 

 disk from one .to three times and then to run the smoothing harrow over the 

 ground once before planting. Other causes of variation were size of field, 

 distance to field, and width of implement. One farm had a very high labor 

 input because the land was disked twenty times. 



Not all Chesterfield growers treated their seed. The time used by those 

 who did depended on the equipment and its convenience for doing the work. 

 Time used in cutting seed varied greatly with the individual. One man who 

 used a fixed knife and had the potatoes in an inclined box so that they were 

 conveniently reached was able to cut 5 bushels an hour. Those who used No. 2 

 seed* did not do as much cutting. 



Figure 6 shows the average amount of labor used in planting by different 

 methods for all areas. Other variations were caused by such factors as the 

 size and shape of the field, the convenience of seed and fertilizer, and freedom 

 from delays or accidents. Some of the growers used additional fertilizer, 

 either before planting or afterward. 



Cultivating and Spraying. 



About half the potato acreage in Chesterfield was rolled once or twice after 

 planting in 1926. The practice on a few farms is to run a ridger over the 

 field and then roll down the ridges. This is repeated, usually just as the 

 potatoes are breaking the ground. 



The one-horse weeder was commonly used two or three times before cultivat- 

 ing. The number of times over caused large differences in labor in cultivat- 

 ing. It was not greatly different with a one or two horse cultivator. Some 

 extra cultivating was done to get rid of weeds. The last cultivation was 

 commonly a hilling operation with either the ridger or horse hoe or with wings 

 placed on the cultivator. 



Some farmers spent a certain amount of time in hoeing and pulling weeds. 

 This labor is usually done at odd times and does not conflict with other oper- 

 ations. 



Spraying time was more variable than almost any other operation. Both the 

 number of times and the labor each time differed greatly. There was very 

 little disease in Chesterfield in 1926 and the presence or absence of spray may 

 not have affected yields in that year. Hand spraying in some cases increased 

 the labor used. The man labor for spraying on one farm was higher than 

 on the others because water had to be hauled a long distance. The use of a 

 commercial power duster on two other farms greatly reduced the labor. 



Harvesting. 



Harvest labor includes digging, picking up, hauling to barn or house, sort- 

 ing, and grading. The use of the hook in digging accounts for the large 

 number of hours of man labor for harvesting on two farms. All others used 

 a potato digger. Time used with the digger was affected by the presence of 

 stones and weeds, the number of delays, and the length of time over which the 

 digging was spread. 



•No. 2 seed differs from No. 1 only in size. It may be from certified fields. 



