COST OF PICKING AND HAULING CITRUS FRUITS, 1951-52 SEASON


 Introduction

 Costs of hauling citrus fruit from the tree to the plant, for the 1951-52 sea-

 son are summarized for 26 operators by type of fruit. Services studied were buying

 and selling, picking, which included delivery to the roadside, and hauling from the

 grove to the processing or packing plant. Fifteen of the firms were primarily

 citrus dealers, specializing in buying and selling, picking, and hauling; ten were

 principally packers of fresh fruit, and one operated a cannery and concentration

 plant. Some of the firms did not provide all types of services. Two of the citrus

 dealers did not pick fruit in 1951-52, and one hauled only. Most of the dealers

 contracted with other operators to pick or haul some of their volume.

 The location of the citrus dealers was Polk County six, Orange three, Lake

 two, Volusia two, Pasco and Hillsborough, one each. Three of the fresh fruit

 packers were located in Orange County, two each in Lake and Seminole, one each in

 Polk, Pasco, Pinellds and Brevard. Volume of fruit handled by the citrus dealers

 ranged from 127,000 to more than 3,000,000 boxes.

 Data were used only from firms with detailed records of actual costs. In

order to obtain uniformity, estimates were used for dividing certain items of cost

but total coots were not changed from the book record. Depreciation was estimated

in a few cases from the preceding years amounts.

 Method of Prorating Costs

 The following is a brief explanation of how costs were allocated to the

various services performed, and distributed by types of fruit. Costs were first

obtained in total from the records, such as total labor, repairs, telephone and

telegraph. If more detail was needed on total costs, they were further analyzed

from subsidiary records, or by estimation of the operator, or in a few cases by

standard ratios developed from records having the needed breakdown. Labor was sub-

divided into classes from payroll records and piece rates.