10 X. H. Agricultural Experimext Station [Bulletin 279 



In relation to the size and number of trees, yields on Farm 7 were only 

 about half those obtained on Farm 8. Had the yields been equivalent, an 

 exceedingly high labor peak would have occurred at the harvest period. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the problem is not so difficult as it would 

 appear because women can be used for most of the packing house labor. 

 In a packing plant putting up 300 to 500 boxes per day, one man is re- 

 quired to dump the apples on the grading machine, another to nail the 

 packed boxes, perhaps a third for miscellaneous work. However, an ex- 

 pert nailer should be able to nail the 400 boxes and also tend to the odd 

 jobs. Extra help to arrange boxes in the storage or to load trucks is 

 needed also. The fruit is graded and placed in the boxes by women. The 

 wrapping and packing is generally done on a piece-work basis. The wages 

 earned are sufficient to attract local women who look forward to annual 

 employment during the apple packing season and develop considerable 

 skill in the work. On Farm 7 practically all of the work during the 

 growing season was done by the operator with one regular man. At 

 harvest the operator supervised the packing house, and the assistant took 

 charge of the picking crew. All of the fruit from this farm was sold 

 through wholesale channels so that no time was required after packing 

 except to load the boxes on trucks or cars. The distribution of time for 

 growing, harvesting, packing and shipping is shown in Figure 1. On this 

 farm 26 per cent of the field time was spent in operations prior to har- 

 vest, 33 in harvesting, Z7 in grading, packing and marketing, and 4 per 

 cent in enterprises other than apple production. 



On Farm 2 apples were graded and packed much as on Farm 7, al- 

 though a smaller proportion was wrapped and a large proportion was 

 marketed to retail stores. On this farm a large common storage is used 

 to hold the fruit as picked, and the grading, packing and marketing are 

 carried on through the winter, furnishing employment for the operator 

 and his crew over a long period. In fact, apple packing was done to a 

 considerable extent during stormy winter weather when the time could not 

 be used advantageously on other crops. There is some extra handling in- 

 volved and the total time put on apples is considerably increased, but 

 normally there is not as high a labor peak at the picking period. 



It is to be noted that on this farm there were six to seven regular men 

 to provide with productive work. Figure 2 illustrates graphically how 

 the packing and marketing functions served to supplement the field work 

 and to provide employment over a long period. Farm 2 was considerably 

 diversified, 33 per cent of the total field time being put on crops other 

 than apples. Considering the apples only, 25 per cent of the time was spent 

 in growing, 49 per cent in harvesting, and 26 per cent in marketing. The 

 yields in this case were high. 



On these three farms and some of the others, the apples were finally 

 sold in a closely graded uniform pack. While consumers appreciate uni- 

 form high quality in apples, many prefer not to pay the extra costs in- 

 volved. Hence on Farm 4, for example, the apples were of rather uni- 

 formly high quality and were sold practically tree-run. They were put 

 into boxes furnished by the buyer without definite arrangement even of 

 the face layer — in other words, in jumble pack. Apples below what is 

 considered a B grade, i. e.. culls and cider apples, were eliminated 



