30 BULLETIN 636, U. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



are separated from the better grades by the sorters in the packing 

 house, as the price received hardly would warrant the labor of picking 

 up the apples in the orchard. The price per ton varies, but is usually 

 from So to S6. delivered at the cider factory. At present there is 

 not a large enough demand for cider apples to justify handling all 

 .those available in the valley. A great many growers do not sell 

 their cull apples, but feed them to hogs, valuing them at from S3 to 

 S4 per ton as hog feed. 



The credit per acre derived from culls averages S5.40 for the or- 

 chards under the clean-cultural system and So. 22 for those under the 

 mulch-crop system. For all orchards there was a credit of S5.29 per 

 acre, leaving a net credit of $4.61 after the labor cost of picking up 

 and hauling culls is taken out. By crediting this, the cost of hand- 

 ling labor is reduced from SO. 2007 per box to SO. 1870 per box. 



TOTAL LABOR COSTS. 



The total of all labor costs after crediting the maintenance labor 

 with the hay or pasture credit and the handling labor with the cull 

 credit, is $103.40 per acre, or SO. 3068 per box. (See Table XIV.) 

 This is 43.14 per cent of the total annual net cost of production. The 

 net maintenance labor costs $40.38 per acre, or $0.1198 per box, 

 making up 16.84 per cent of the total annual net cost, while the net 

 handling labor amounts to S63.02 per acre, or SO. 1870 per box, and 

 makes up 26.30 per cent of the total annual net production cost. 



As may be seen from the labor table, the costs of t hi nning and 

 pruning are the largest maintenance costs. They make up 18.32 

 per cent of the total net labor cost. These total labor costs are for 

 an average of all the bearing orchards considered and are on the 

 basis of a yield of 337 boxes per acre. The table is self-explanatory 

 and shows the difference between the clean-cultural and mulch- 

 crop orchards, there being a difference in the net maintenance costs 

 of $0.0229 per box, this cost being greater in the case of the clean- 

 cultural orchards. However, for all net labor the cost per box is 

 practically the same in both the clean-cultural and the mulch-crop 

 orchards, being S0.30S5 in the case of the former and SO. 3054 in the 

 case of the latter. 



