based on some value for labor. The cost of labor involved in any particular 

 farm situation is going to depend first of all on whether or not it has to 

 be hired. If it is hired, the price of labor is established by the wage rate. 

 If it is not hired, then the farm family itself must decide what the use 

 of its labor is worth. If this family labor has no other use, then the family 

 may be content to achieve a rather low return per hour of picking time. 

 If it has other uses or the family for some other reason wants a relatively 

 high return per hour, this will establish a high labor rate per hour. 



The first type of decision is arrived at in one of three ways, all of 

 which are discussed in following sections of this bulletin. One method is 

 to use the marginal output curve as shown in Figure 4 and find the input 

 of labor per acre at which the marginal output is equal to the cost of 

 labor per hour. A second method is to use the total cost curve as shown 

 in Figure 5 and find the value output per acre at which the difference be- 

 tween total cost and total returns is a maximum. The third method is to 

 use the marginal cost curve as shown in Figure 6 and find the value 

 output per acre at which marginal cost per dollar of output is equal to 

 one dollar. 



The second type of decision is arrived at as shown in Figure 7. The 

 total returns from applying 400 hours of labor to varying quantities of 

 land are determined and the maximum returns acreage found. This is dis- 

 cussed in the final section of the bulletin. 



Continuous Series of Labor Inputs 



While the data were obtained on the basis of definite frequencies of 

 picking, the nature of the harvest is such that these data can be considered 

 as points in a continuous series of applications of labor to an acre of the 

 crop. For instance, in actual practice an operator might pick a fraction of 

 his field in a day and then begin where he left off on the following day. 

 Thus any constant labor force available might, within limitations, be em- 

 ployed on the picking operations. We have assumed in the analysis which 

 follows that each operator has the opportunity of varying the total hours 

 of labor input in harvesting an acre of cucumbers and that this application 

 of labor can be considered as a continuing series of inputs. 



Physical Output Curves 



In Figure 3 the total output data, measured in terms of total value of 

 all grades, are plotted against the hours of picking labor per acre extending 

 from 105 hours (1.4 times per week) to 294 hours (six times per week). 

 According to this curse, the total output increases at a decreasing rate and 

 beyond the application of 200 hours of labor it increases only moderately. 



The average value output per hour of picking labor decreased with 

 greater applications of labor as indicated in Figure 4. The situation is 

 described with greater emphasis in the marginal output curve. This curve 

 represents the value of the output of each succeeding input of man labor. 

 At any point in the application of labor the production of the last hour 

 applied is accounted for. 



According to this curve, the 120th hour of labor resulted in an output 

 of $1.50 in value of the four grades of cucumbers, while the 170th hour 

 accounted for S.48 in value, and the 250th hour only $.10. 



When once the field has been carried to the harvest period, decision 



