COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN HOOD RIVER VALLEY. 45 



NaUing and staon'ping. — All boxes are nailed, and stamped with. 

 the name of the grower, the grade, the number of apple& in box, 

 the variety, the packer's number, and the cubical contents of the box, 

 which is 2,173 cubic inches. The nailing bench or rack is arranged 

 with a device for holding down the box cover over the bulge so that 

 it meets the ends of the box and can be easily nailed. The nailer is 

 usually an expert and nails very rapidly, but for an amateur it is 

 slow work. In all cases the nailer also stamps the boxes ; in 74 per 

 cent of all cases he also helps to wait either on the packers or on the 

 sorters. The average nailer will nail and stamp 232 boxes per day, 

 and the average cost per box is about 1 cent. Some men nail and 

 stamp by piecework ; the usual price paid is 1 cent per box. In the 

 case of nailing and waiting the cost is higher, being $0,014 per box. 

 One or more waiters, according to the number and size of the crew 

 used in packing, carry apples to the sorters as needed, and carry 

 graded apples from the sorters to the packers. In many cases sorters 

 and packers wait on themselves. Especially is this true where the 

 orchard is small and there is not a great amount of fruit to pack. In 

 large packing crews a trucker is often employed who trucks the 

 nailed-up boxes from the nailers and stacks them up ready to be 

 hauled. 



Where mechanical sizers are used one extra man is often employed 

 to look after the machine and usually acts as foreman. Sixteen of 

 the growers, or not quite one-third, had foremen who had no other 

 duties but supervision, and whose labor is charged entirely to the 

 boxes put out by the packers. There was but one grower of the 54 

 who sorted his apples as he packed them ; that is to say, the packer 

 sorted his own apples. In Colorado and many other Northwest sec- 

 tions a great many packers sort their own apples. 



That sorters are employed more generally in Hood River than in 

 most other sections, and that the sorting cost is about as great as the 

 packing cost, is due largely to the fact that Hood River apples are 

 carefully watched for spots caused by the apple scab, a fungus preva- 

 lent in that region. 



The cost of aU labor employed about the packing house for Hood 

 River Valley is $0.1073 per packed box. There is a chance to lower 

 labor costs in the packing house materially in the case of many grow- 

 ers. If the crew is not large the foreman may very well be a packer, 

 sorter, nailer, or the like, but all crews, whatever their size, do need a 

 packing foreman to see that the apples are properly sorted and 

 packed. Some growers have already lowered their harvesting cost 

 per box materially by increasing efficiency in the handling of har- 

 vesting crews, both inside and outside of the packing house; but in 

 general there is room for considerable improvement in this regard. 



