42 



BULLETIN 518, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



attributed largely to the fact that day labor considers a certain num- 

 ber of boxes as a fair day's work. They will pick a reasonable 

 number in any case, working faster or slower according to the yield, 

 but actually picking few more per day in one case than in the other. 

 This, of course, does not apply to men who do their own picking 

 or to other help personally interested in an orchard. 



HAULING. 



There are four hauling operations, namely, hauling the loose box 

 shooks from the station to the ranch to be made up, hauling the 

 empty boxes to the orchard, hauling the full picking boxes to the 

 packing house, and hauling the packed boxes to the loading station. 

 In hauling shooks, in the case of the farms studied, one man 

 and team will haul an average load of 433 box shooks 2.01 miles at 

 a cost of $0,004 per box shook, or $0,002 per box shook per mile. 

 In many cases the box shooks are delivered at the farm, the price of 

 delivery usually being from one-quarter to one-half cent per box. 

 Taking all cases the cost per acre for getting the box shooks to the 

 farm, including the contract labor, is $0.83 per acre, or $0.0037 per 

 box. The box shooks are usually hauled during the late summer, 

 early enough to give the grower time to make up his boxes. Haul- 

 ing the loose boxes to the orchard from the shed, or wherever they 

 are made up, is comparatively inexpensive, as they may be stacked on 

 a sled or wagon and many of them hauled out at once. The most 

 common practice is to combine hauling out the empty boxes with 

 hauling in the full boxes. For those who make a separate operation 

 of hauling out the empty boxes the cost per box averages about one- 

 half cent. In hauling in the full boxes, where no hauling-out time 

 is considered, it is found that a man and a team, with a wagon or 

 truck, will haul 42 loose boxes per load, at a cost of $0,015 per 

 packed box. When both hauling out and in are considered the cost 

 is $3.59 per acre, or $0,016 per packed box. Either one or two men 

 may work at hauling the full loose boxes to the shed. Where 

 there are enough pickers to keep the haulers busy, two men can do 

 this work to better advantage than one. This hauling is done 

 almost entirely on the low truck wagon. (See Table XVII.) 



Table XVII. — Average time required for hauling on farms studied when man 



and team are used. 



Item. 



Man- 

 hours per 

 acre. 



Horse- 

 hours per 

 acre. 



Cost per 

 acre. 



Size of 

 load. 



Cost per 



packed 



box. 



Number Cost per 

 of miles, ^gf 





1.80 



7.05 



11.73 



3.35 

 12.82 

 23.46 



$0.91 

 3.51 

 6.16 



Boxes. 

 433 

 42 



87 



$0. 0041 

 .0152 

 .0285 



2.01 



$0,002 



Haul in full boxes 







4.00 



.007 







