62 



N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 257 



takes for granted that the time not on orchard work can either be used 

 profitably or that help is available on call for short periods. In mak- 

 ing comparisons on different farms, certain management problems in- 

 volving the use of regular men on orchard tasks in slack seasons need 

 to be studied from other than an enterprise method and will be 

 touched on in the second publication of this series in dealing with farm 

 organization. 



Operating cost as considered here includes only the cost of man 

 labor, horse, truck and tractor labor, spray material, fertilizer and 

 use of spray machine. Land, interest and taxes are not included. The 

 average cost per 1,000 mature tree units was $2,128 a year (Table 23). 

 This is made up of $886 or 42 per cent, man labor ; .$188 or 9 per cent, 

 horse labor ; $500 or 24 per cent, fertilizer ; $436 or 20 per cent, spray 

 materials; $118 or 6 per cent, use of spray machine. The operating 

 cost varies greatly. Farm 4 is highest with $4,246 per 1,000 mature 



f 



9 and 12 have costs between 

 , 10 and 11 between $1,000 and 

 4 is largelv due to 



verv high 



tree units (Table 23). Farms 1. 2, 3, 

 $2,000 and $3,000. and Farms 5, 6, 7, 8 

 $2,000. The extreme high cost of No 

 cost of fertilizer. 



When computed on a basis of normal expected yields (Table 23), 

 the average cost was $356 per 1,000 boxes. Farms 2, 3, 4, 9 and 12 

 had costs over $400 per 1,000 boxes ; Farms 1, 2, 7, 8 and 10 had be- 

 tween $200 and $300; and Nos. 6 and 11 had costs less than $200. 



When computed on basis of actual yields, the average cost was $323 

 per 1,000 boxes. Farms 3, 4 and 12 had costs over $400; Farms 1. 2, 

 6, 7, 10 and 11 had costs between .$200 and $400 ; Farms 5, 8 and 9 had 

 costs below $200. Farm 8 was lowest with only $120 per 1,000 boxes 

 actual yield and No. 4 was highest with $539. 



Table 25 — Comparison- of operating costs between tivelve farms and 

 twenty-six additional farms (land and orchard not included). 



Per 1,000 trees 

 12 26 



Per 1,000 boxes expected vield 

 12 26 



Comparison of the 12 Farms and 26 Other Farms 



For comparative purposes a survey was made on 26 additional fruit 

 farms scattered in different parts of the state. A comparison of the 

 records of these 26 farms with the detail records in this study show 

 few distinct diff'erences in the average man laboi- i'e(|niivmeiits. The 

 26 farms did practically no cultivating jnid oidy about half as much 

 thinning. 



On the 12 farms, 29 man hours were used in cultivation per 1,000 

 boxes normal yield, and on the 26 farms only 3 hours were so used 



