COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN YAKIMA VALLEY. 61 



Table XLII. —Cost of all hauling on 120 farms' studied. 



Operation. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 records. 



Yield. 



Load. 



Miles. 



Cost 

 per 

 acre. 



Cost per 



packed 



box. 



Cost per 



box per 



mile. 





120 

 120 



1 120 



432 

 432 



432 



462 

 54 



81 



1.81 

 1.85 



$1.66 

 8.84 



7.12 



SO. 0038 

 .0205 



.0165 



SO. 0021 



Hauling boxes to and from orchard l 



Hauling packed boxes to station (108) 



Hauling loose boxes to association (12) 





.0089 



1 Twelve orchardists hauled empty boxes to the orchard, but hauled their full boxes to a central packing 

 shed. 



TOTAL HANDLING COST. 



The total net handling cost of the North Yakima district (64 

 orchards considered) was $89.26 per acre, or $0.1932 per box, while 

 in the Zillah district (56 orchards considered) the acre cost was 

 $86.12, or $0.2164 per box. The labor cost, with no credit for culls, 

 was $0.0232 more per box in the Zillah district. 



Considering all orchards studied, there appears to be little difference 

 in the total net handling costs per box between the orchards under 

 clean-cultural and those under mulch-crop management. On the 

 former it is 56.97 per cent, the latter 63.12 per cent of the total net 

 labor cost. 



The total net handling cost for the 120 orchards studied was $87.79 

 per acre, or $0.2032 per box. This cost is 58.92 per cent of the total 

 net labor, or 25.40 per cent of the total net cost of production. 



TOTAL LABOR COST. 



When the total labor cost for the 120 farms studied in the Yakima 

 Valley is considered, there is found to be a net labor cost per acre of 

 $149.01, or $0.3449 per box, after credit has been allowed for hay or 

 pasture, wood for fuel, and all fruit not packed in boxes. This total 

 credit amounts to $0.0190 per box. The net maintenance cost 

 amounts to $0.1417 per box, or 41.09 per cent of the total net labor 

 cost, while the net labor cost for handling amounts to $0.2032 per 

 box, or 58.92 per cent of the total net labor cost. As will be seen 

 from Table XLIII, the total net handling cost per box is practically 

 the same under both the clean-cultural and the mulch-crop system, 

 but the net labor cost per box for maintenance labor is much less in 

 the case of the mulch-crop system. There is a net maintenance cost 

 of $70.03 per acre in the case of the 75 clean-cultural orchards and 

 $46.49 in the case of the mulch-crop orchards. If no credit is given 

 the mulch-crop orchards, there is still a difference of $9.35 per acre 

 in their favor. The cost per box, if no credit is given, is practically 

 the same for the two systems, as the yield is 54 boxes per acre greater 

 in the case of the clean-cultural orchards. 



