'9



with the orange houses, had a cost of $0.3787, yet the container was the

same for each type of fruit. Other items of cost show similar small

variations. The average costs shown in each category are weighted aver-

ages of the packinghouses included; i.e., the total money cost of each

item for all houses was divided by the total number of boxes packed. The

use of weighted averages in this summary tends to fix the cost of pack-

ing and selling somewhat lower than the simple average. This is true be-

cause the larger houses, which usually had somewhat lower costs, have

more effect on the average than smaller houses. For example, the simple

average cost of packing and selling oranges in the 1-3/5 bushel wire-

bound box by 28 firms was $1.4828 or 8.2 cents higher than the weighted

average of $1.4006 as shown in Table 4. Sixteen firms had total costs

higher than the weighted average and 12 had lower costs.

 The cost of selling as shown in Tables, 4, 5, and 6 includes

only the expense of the firm's own sales department or,.sales organization.

Brokerage commission and auction charges are not included. These costs

are usually deducted before entering the net proceeds of the sale on the

books and can be obtained, in most instances, only by analyzing the account

sales or invoices on each lot of fruit sold.

 In the detailed cost tables 4, 5 and 6 administrative and general

costs are condensed into one item, and a group of expenses, shown as

other items, is also reduced to one line. A typical distribution of

these groups is shown on page 17, Some of the items as degreening,

color-add and waxing are not enough to cover the full cost of the ser-

vice, but not all the fruit was so treated. Total expenditure for any

item or service was divided by the whole number of boxes packed.