-12-

 picked and hauled. On this basis of comparison the dealers had 40 percent more capital

 invested per 1,000 boxes than the packers ($74 for dealers and $53 for packers). They

 also had 31 percent more volume per firm.

 None of the costs in Tables 1 and 2 includes interest on capital invested in picking

 and hauling equipment. Interest paid by the firms for the use of borrowed capital is in-

 cluded, though very few had interest expense. If interest at 5 percent were included on

 the book value of the operator's capital it would amount to .32 cents per box picked and

 hauled.

 Variation in Cost Between Firms

 Total cost varied rather widely between firms for providing the same service. These

variations in total cost for picking and hauling in 1953-54 are shown in Tables 4, 5 and

6. Not enough is known about the individual firm's operations to provide much information

about reasons for costs being high or low. Costs do not seem to be related to the total

volume of the firm. In fact some of the smaller operators had relatively low costs.


 Comparison of 1953-54 Costs with Previous Seasons

 Total picking and hauling costs for 1953-54 were not much different from the

averages of preceding seasons (Table 7). Buying and selling costs per box have declined

somewhat each season, and hauling costs have shown the same tendency. No definite

trend is shown by the picking costs. The fluctuation in total costs each season is wider

for tangerines than for oranges and grapefruit. Very few of the citrus dealers picked them

with their own crews, and packinghouse crews picked them in much smaller volume than

other citrus.