14 



BUIxLETIlsr 9*73, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



^ .Off 



operated by hand levers are consistently higher than with the rotary 

 and single-row types of machines for all plants of this group. The 

 costs with the large automatic machine are less than with the hand- 

 lever machine after about 3,000 bottles are reached. 



Owing to the high cost of labor, the hand-capping method is not 

 economical for plants bottling more than 1,000 bottles daily. From 

 a sanitary standpoint also this method is undesirable. According to 

 the data obtained there was very little choice as regards cost of 

 operation between the rotary and single-row types of machine. The 

 average purchase price of the machines of these two types is prac- 

 tically the same, and the labor cost at the particular plants studied 



was only slightly 

 -/'^r 1 \ ^ 1 1 - I - '■ I 1 1 . 1 greater with the sin- 

 gle-row type. On 

 account of the great 

 variation in efficiency 

 of labor and of plant 

 management, and 

 because these figures 

 are based on only a 

 relatively small num- 

 ber of plants, it would 

 not be possible to say 

 that one of these two 

 types is more eco- 

 nomical than the 

 other. 



If it should be as- 

 sumed that at these 

 plants two machines 

 of the rotary and sin- 

 gle-row types were 

 used instead of one, 

 and that the bottles 

 filled per man-hour 

 were the same as 

 above, these types 

 would still be more 

 economical than the 

 machine with the 

 hand levers for all plants in this group, while the costs with the 

 large automatic machines would fall below those with the other two 

 types when about 4,500 bottles are reached. 



Figure 11 is based on the data in Table 4 obtained from 45 plants 

 bottling more than 10,000 bottles daily. At these plants the average 

 number of machines was 1.6, 2.7, 4.7, and 1.8, for the methods 1 to 4, 

 respectively, and an allowance for interest and depreciation of 20 per 

 cent a year is made on these numbers of machines for each method. 

 The same values for the machines were assumed as before. Owmg to 

 the comparatively large number of machines that were used at the 

 plants using single-row and rotary machines the costs with these 

 machines are higher than with the other two methods, because of the 

 larger amount that must be charged for interest and depreciation. 

 It will be noted that at these plants the costs with the rotary and 



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Fig. 11.— Comparative costs for labor and for interest and deoreciation 

 on equipment for four months of bottling milk for various-sized plants, 

 computed from labor costs and the average number of machines of 

 various types used at 45 plants bottling 10,000 bottles or more daily. 

 Figures in parenthesis indicate average number of machines in use at 

 each plant. The relatively higher costs with the single-iow and 

 rotary machines are due in part to the fact that in many plants some 

 of the machines were not in constant use. 



