COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN YAKIMA VALLEY. 



51 



tricts. After the apples are picked they are placed in boxes which 

 previously have been distributed throughout the orchard at con- 

 venient places. The pickers fill the boxes without heaping, and 

 thus one box may be piled upon another without injury to the fruit. 

 Usually as the boxes are filled they are piled in the shade at a place 

 conveniently located for hauling into the packing shed. In some 

 instances "lug boxes" are used for hauling the picked fruit to the 

 packing shed. This box is of a little heavier type than the ordinary 

 packing box, a little wider and longer, and a little shallower, but 

 has somewhat greater capacity than the picking box. These boxes 

 are used mostly in some of the very large orchards. As a rule, 

 however, orchardists considered in this investigation use the regular 

 packing box. 



FlG. 9.— Hauling box shooks to the ranch. It is the practice to haul the bos shooks from the station, 

 and make up the boxes before harvesting time at the ranch. 



The yield is the greatest limiting factor in determining the amount 

 a picker can pick in a day, but where day labor is used the variation 

 in the amount picked is not great, owing to the attempt on the part 

 of the picker to pick about the same number of boxes per day and 

 at about the same cost per box regardless of the crop. (See Table 

 XXXVIII.) 



The yields averaging 200 boxes or less were on the younger orchards. 

 Usually the apples on young trees are well placed and of good size, 

 the trees are smaller, and there is not so much need of a ladder, so 

 that, if the fruit is not scattered too widely, the picker often will be 

 able to pick more in a given time than where the crop is larger 

 though on bigger trees. 



If contract labor had been employed for picking, no doubt up to a 

 certain point the effect of the yield on the picking time would have 



