AN ECONOMIC STJDY OF THE PRODUCTION OP CANNING CROPS 61 



Niagara area, and 4 hours in the Chautauqua area. This time was included 

 in the length of time spent in hauling. The tonnage of tomatoes which 

 the canning companies were required to handle was above normal and a 

 certain amount of delay was unavoidable. In the Niagara area, where 

 the tomatoes for the most part were delivered at loading stations to be 

 shipped to Rochester, a number of extra trips had to be made to get crates. 

 The hours per acre hauling crates in the Niagara area and the adjoining 

 area, Orleans, with substantially the same yield, were as follows: 



Man Horse Truck 



hours hours hours 



Niagara 4.0 6.2 0.8 



Orleans 1.7 3.2 



At the rates at which it was charged, the extra labor spent in the Niagara 

 area amounted to over $3 an acre. 



FACTORS AFFECTING THE COST OF PRODUCTION OF TOMATOES 



Yield per acre 



The yield per acre is probably the most important single factor affecting 

 the cost per ton in the production of tomatoes. The relation between 

 the yield per acre and the profits is shown in table 64. The costs in 

 detail for each yield group are given in table 65. 



TABLE 64. RELATION BETWEEN YIELD OF TOMATOES PER ACRE, AND RETURNS 



ABOVE THE COST OF HARVESTING, 133 FARMS, 1920* 



*The correlation coefficient between the yield per acre and the cost per ton was - 0.335 0.052. 

 t A small part of this increase was due to the fact that more of the farms in the higher-yielding groups 

 were located in the Orleans and Niagara areas, where a higher price was paid per ton. 



The growing cost per acre increased only $3 between the farms that had 

 yields of less than 8 tons per acre and those that had yields of from 8 to 1 1 

 tons per acre. However, there was an increase in the average yield per 

 acre of 3.9 tons, and of $65 in the return per acre above the cost of har- 

 vesting, between those two groups of farms. The increase in the growing 

 cost per acre was only $15 between the lowest- and the highest-yielding 

 group, while the increase in the return above the cost of harvesting 

 amounted to $146 per acre. 



