16 



N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 257 



The division of labor rfqnirements into skilled and unskilled is im- 

 portant in considering eeonomie size of orchard, because skilled men 

 cannot be had ordinarily on short notice for short jobs, while there has 

 never been much difficulty in getting day help for unskilled jobs. 

 Hence the problem of balancing the business to make the best use of 

 the skilled help is most important. 



Before proceeding to study the individual operations, it may be 

 best to get a picture of the relative importance of each by stuclying 

 Table 4. The time requirements for the different operations vary 

 greatly on the several farms. P^'or the average of all farms, pruning 

 took about 26 per cent, of the man hours and spraying about 18 per 

 cent. These two operations, therefore, not only require skilled help 

 but represent together about 44 per cent, of the total requirements. 

 Soil management by cultivating, mowing and mulching represents about 



567.3 



Pruning 5pr*yin& Brush Fertilizer Cultivmioh Mowing Mulching Thinning Propping Setting Protection Misc. 

 Z6.6% 17.4% 7.7% 3.5% 7.9% 10.7% 13.1% 2.3% 3.1 Jt t.Z% 2.E7. 4.3% 



Fig. 5. The average number of hours spent in each orchard operation and 

 the percentage of total time required for 1,000 mature trees 



21 per cent, of the time required prior to harvest. Thinning and 

 propping used about 15 per cent, of the man hours. The other opera- 

 tions were all of minor importance as far as labor requirement is con- 

 cerned. The operations of pruning, spraying, soil management, thin- 

 ning and propping account for about 80 per cent, of the man hours 

 prior to harvest and should be stressed in studying labor cost. 



PRUNING 



In studying pruning from an economic viewpoint it is essential to 

 have in mind the purpose or expected benefits. With the young tree, 

 pruning is done almost exclusively to develop a strong framework. 

 The stronger tree is obtained at the expense not only of the labor in- 

 volved but also of a delay in growth and in crop production which 

 has been demonstrated by numerous experiments. 



It is to be noted, however, that an individual mature tree may at 

 times carry 30 or more boxes of apples — a weight of twelve to fifteen 

 hundred pounds — on the ends of the branches. The tree with weak 

 framework or bad crotches will from time to time lose bi-anches, ulti- 

 mately lowering the yields and making the orchard unproductive as 

 it grows older. The labor and otlier costs of obtaining a strong tree 

 without weak crotches is thus justified. 



