80 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 240 



Table 4.— Materials Used per Acre of Potatoes, Chesterfield Area, 1926. 



a Hired dusting. Amount not given. 

 "to Averages for acres on which applied. 



Applications of manure varied from none on farms 2, 3, and 6, to 30 tons 

 per acre on farm 9. 



The amounts of spray material used are showTi in Table 4. All but three 

 growers mixed their own Bordeaux and lead arsenate on the farm. A com- 

 fnercial dust was used on farms 3, 6, and 7. 



Labor and Materials Used in the Granhy Area. 



The man labor used on the Granby farms varied from 45 to 130 hours per 

 acre. This was considerably less than in the other areas studied. As com- 

 pared with Chesterfield, there were more tractors in use and the fields are more 

 regular and have fewer stones. Less time was spent in performing most of the 

 field operations. Only one grower did not use a digger in harvesting and 

 very little time was spent in grading, a large percentage of the potatoes be- 

 ing sold at the farm just as they came from the field. Less time per acre- 

 was used in picking up, owing to the lower yield. 



The following discussion of the individual operations throws some light 

 on other causes of variation in the labor input. 



Preparation and Planting. 



Considerably less time was used in drawing manure on the Granby farms 

 than on the hill farnTS of Chesterfield. This is explained by the greater number 

 of manure spreaders in use, only one farm in Granby being without a spreader; 

 and by the fact that the manure was handled only once in Granby and on 

 some of the hill farms it was hauled out in the winter and later rehandled. 



The range in hours spent in plowing an acre in Granby is shown in Figure 

 4. With two horses and a walking plow it took from 4 to 6 man hours to 

 plow an acre. On one farm, 1L4 man hours were used, but the land was 



