AMERICAN-GROWN PAPRIKA. 23 
involved, thus showing the percentage of the total expenditure de- 
manded for these different features of the problem. The results are 
given in Table V. 
Table V. — Distribution of expenditures required in producing the paprika crop. 
Item of expense. 
Percentage 
involved. 
Preparing and sowing the seed bed 
Preparing and cultivating land 
Transplanting plants to field and resetting to stand 
Fertilizers 
Picking the pepper fruit 
Handling peppers, care of fires during curing, etc 
Fuel bill (pine wood) 
Grading, sacking, handling, etc., including the price of sacks. 
Total 
3.5 
9.3 
3.2 
32.0 
24.7 
16.3 
3.7 
7.0 
99.7 
The cost of picking was calculated on the weight of the fresh pods 
picked by each individual. These pods were carefully weighed at 
the end of the picking, and the price paid was 20 cents per hundred 
pounds. This system of payment had the advantage of securing the 
picker's best efforts and was familiar to him through his experience in 
picking cotton. 
The fuel item is likely to vary according to the supply available 
and the convenience of securing it. The other items will also show 
some departures from those here given, since practice, and therefore 
expense, will vary from year to year in the same place and between 
places differently situated. The labor item is a very important factor, 
absorbing probably half of the total expense, while of the items for 
materials the fertilizer bill is by far the most prominent. 
OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE. 
The outlook for the future of paprika culture in the United States 
should be considered with reference to the possibility of its profitable 
extension. It is not yet clear to what extent the spice manufacturer 
or dealer will be able or willing to replace the paprika now imported 
with the American-grown article, It is possible, and indeed probable, 
that the home-grown article will fail to meet the taste of mauy 
paprika users, but it is likely, on the other hand, in time to make a 
place for itself with others. Assuming that the American article 
could command the market now supplied by imported Hungarian 
paprika, and assuming also that the rough estimate of the annual 
importation of this article is approximately correct at 500,000 pounds, 
with an average production of 1,000 pounds of dried paprika pods 
per acre, an area of 500 acres of paprika would supply the demand. 
It is probable, however, that owing to the marked pungency of the 
powdered pepper made by grinding the whole pod and the very 
