COST OF PRODUCTION OF APPLES, PAYETTE VALLEY, IDAHO. 29 



Twelve of the packers have a waiter whose business it is to wait 

 on the sorters and packers. This waiter will handle the boxes and 

 wait on a crew putting out 260 boxes per day. The cost per box for 

 this labor is $0.0077. Nearly half of the men who pack their own 

 apples either employ a packing-house foreman, or the owner himself 

 acts in this capacity in addition to doing other packing-house labor. 

 In these cases the packing-house foreman is employed separately 

 from any packer or sorter. The cost per box for such men as have 

 a foreman is $0.0059, figured at the regular labor rate of $0.20 per 

 hour, although if the foreman is hired he is frequently paid at a 

 higher rate. Many growers use still other packing-house labor. Such 

 labor usually includes the man who helps truck the boxes and does 

 various other things that are often done by waiters. 



The total packing-house labor cost, including those who have their 

 packing done at the association, is $41.64 per acre, or $0.1236 per 

 box. 



Both the associations and the growers generally use the Northwest 

 diagonal pack. The extra fancy and fancy grades and often the 

 C grades are wrapped. C grades, and sometimes fancy apples, in 

 poor-price years, are packed but not wrapped. The distributors 

 make a practice of wrapping all three grades. The association charge 

 in such cases includes not only labor, but the box, paper, nails, etc., 

 also the cost of handling the box, together with an inspection fee and 

 sinking fund. However, in this study of costs only the actual packing 

 and box costs are considered. Inspection, sinking fund, overhead 

 expenses, etc., are items which are not taken into consideration in 

 any of this cost-production work, since they are factors which ordi- 

 narily enter into the cost of marketing after the apples are delivered 

 at the station. 



All handling labor cost has now been discussed. If to the packing- 

 house labor of $0.1236 per box is added the cost of made-up box, 

 including paper, nails, etc. ($0.1585), there is a total material and 

 labor cost per box of $0.2821 within the packing house. If to this 

 are added all other handling labor costs, there is a total for handling, 

 including labor and material, of $0.3612 per box, or after the culls 

 are credited, it is reduced to $0.3455 per box as a net labor and 

 material cost. 



CULLS AND CIDER APPLES. 



Many growers sell a few tons of cider or drier, apples each year. 

 These are known as the "cull apples," and may come either from the 

 packing shed or be picked up from the ground in the orchard. In the 

 Payette region, however, very few growers pick up windfalls arid sell 

 them as cider apples. Most of the apples used for cider in this section 



