26 BULLETIN 636, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



All picking is done by hand. The ordinary stepladder, varying in 

 length but usually light and easily handled, is commonly used. 



A canvas picking bag is used by nearly all growers. Some of the 

 growers use orchard boxes, in which the apples are hauled from the 

 orchard to the packing house. These boxes are larger and heavier 

 than the ordinary apple box and are commonly called lug boxes. 

 However, as in other Northwest sections, these growers usually handle 

 their apples in the ordinary packing boxes which have been made up 

 and hauled into the orchard at convenient places for the pickers. As 

 these same boxes are used for packing, more care is taken in handling 

 them than in handling the lug boxes. 



It is found that the average picker will pick 67 loose boxes per 

 day, or enough to make 44 packed boxes. The average picking 

 crew consists of from three to four men. On the farms studied, with 

 a yield of 337 boxes per acre, it costs $15.53 per acre, or $0.0461 per 

 box for picking. (See Table XIII.) The picking time and cost are 

 affected by yield, size of orchard, variety of apple, weather conditions, 

 uniformity of the fruit, and many other factors. Owing to the limit- 

 ed number of orchards from which data were obtained, no definite 

 conclusions could be reached as to the relative influence of these 

 different factors on the cost. 



There are a few men with large orchards who employ an orchard 

 foreman to superintend the pickers. On the total labor cost this 

 foreman labor is combined with the picking labor, but influences it 

 very little, the cost, including the foreman, being $0. 0465 per box. 

 This is because there were only two orchards which used an orchard 

 foreman who did not also act as a picker. 



The picking labor, including the orchard foreman, makes up 15.16 

 per cent of the total net labor cost and 6.54 per cent of the total 

 annual net cost of production. 



HAULING. 



Hauling costs include hauling shooks, hauling the loose boxes to 

 and from the orchard, and hauling to the station or association. 

 Twenty-four men haul shooks, the others handling their fruit through 

 an association from which they obtain their made-up boxes. In 

 the case of these 24 orchardists, one man and team haul 471 shooks 

 per load a distance of 1.24 miles at a cost of $0.87 per acre, or $0.0026 

 per box. (See Table XII.) After these shooks are hauled, they 

 are made up on the ranch at an average cost of $0.85 per hun- 

 dred. This cost is included under made-up box cost in material 

 and fixed costs. All growers haul empty boxes to the orchard. 

 Fourteen of these haul from the association packing house, while 24 

 haul from their own packing house on the ranch. The cost of hauling 



