Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


TABLE 10.-FLUE-CURED TOBACCO: LABOR AND MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS.
 Usual Period Man Mule
 Operation of Hours Hours
 Performance per Acre per Acre

Prepare and plant seedbed .............. Dec. 25 Jan. 7 22.9 4.3
Care of seedbed ............................... Jan. 7 Mar. 31 22.5 8.6
Break land ...................................... Jan. 1 Feb. 28 5.5 11.0
Prepare and set out ........................ Mar. 1 Apr. 15 48.1 19.9
Cultivate ...................................... Apr. 10 July 20 73.6 27.5.
Hoe ..:.................... ................. ..... Apr. 1 May 15 10.1
Poison ............................................. Apr. 16 June 15 16.3
Harvest ................. .................... June 21 July 31 170.9 30.9
Cure ................... ....... ......................... June 21 Aug. 6 100.4
Grade and pack ................................ June 21 Aug. 6 86.0
M market ........................................... July 21 Aug. 20 14.0

 570.3 102.2

Material requirements per acre: Seed 2/ ounce; seedbed fertilizer 131
 pounds; fertilizer 1,054 pounds; twine 15 balls; lime 85 pounds;
 lead arsenate 15 pounds; wood 3.3 cords
Yield per acre: 977 pounds


 The greatest variation in time required to produce an acre of
 tobacco on different farms was in the curing process. Most
 tobacco barns will hold a curing from 4 acres of tobacco. A crop
 of tobacco is usually completed with 5 curings. Each curing re-
 quires about the same amount of man work regardless of whether
 the barn is full or not. For this reason, the curing time shown
 in the above table is based on a full barn. If a farmer pro-
 duced 4.0 acres of tobacco he would use an average of 570.3 hours
 per acre. If, however, he produced less than 4 acres he would use
 more hours per acre because the time required for curing remains
 the same.
 WATERMELONS
 Records for watermelons were obtained from 18 farmers who
 produced 252 acres, an average of 14.0 acres per farm (Table
 11). Thirteen of the 18 farmers averaged 10 acres or less.
 Three farmers produced watermelons for commercial seed. Har-
 vest time for these 3 farms is omitted from the table below.
 Cuban Queen and Stone Mountain were the most common vari-
 eties grown. The most common commercial fertilizer used was
 4-8-6. Only 3 farmers side-dressed as a regular practice. Six
 farmers used heavy applications of compost in addition to com-
 mercial fertilizer. There is little variation in the time melons