May, 1931] Studies in Economics of Apple Orcharding 



41 



tional area. The time used in the three-year period on this farm is 

 probably about 25 per cent, greater than the normal use of labor on 

 soil management. Farm 5 with 11.8 hours per acre did considerable 

 hand-mowing, because part of the orchard is on rough and rocky land. 

 Orchard 2 with 13.4 hours per acre cultivated the young orchards and 

 did a very thorough job of hand-mowing. Orchard 7 used 5.7 hours 

 per acre. This orchard is laid out conveniently to mow with ma- 

 chines, and hand-mowing was done only where the operator thought 

 it would pay from a moisture control viewpoint. 



The weighted average labor requirement per 1,000 trees was 160 

 hours. Farm 4 was highest with 550 hours, and Farm 6 lowest with 

 30 hours. 



Table 15 — Average acres and average number of trees cultivated on 



twelve farms. 



In cultural operations the labor requirement is not positively cor- 

 related with the age of the tree. Consequently orchards with a large 

 percentage of young trees that are either heavily mulched or culti- 

 vated tend to have a higher labor requirement per mature tree equiv- 

 alent as compared to per tree. The average per 1,000 mature trees was 

 465 hours. 



When related to actual yields for the three years, the average labor 

 requirement per 1,000 boxes of apples was 7034 hours. All but two 

 farms are below this average. The weighted average number of man 

 hours per 1,000 boxes of normal expected yield was 78. 



The period of labor on soil management is not very definite as to 

 time, and there is considerable leeway for the operator to do the work 

 at times when other more definite orchard jobs are not pressing. On 

 diversified farms, the cultivation or mowing of an orchard seriously 

 competes with some crops ; but since the work can usually be done by 

 ordinary farm help no very serious management problem is raised. 



