Picking.--This is the operation of getting the fruit off the tree and

 into the highway truck, commonly termed "picking and loading" or "roadsiding."

 The principal costs of performing this service are labor, fuel, repairs, licenses,

 insurance and depreciation for the grove trucks, crew trucks, tractors, load-

 ing machines and other picking equipment, and administrative expense.

 Picking costs, as shown in Table 1, include all amounts paid for

 direct labor for picking and delivery to the roadside, grove truck expense,

 and a portion of overhead and administrative expenses. Picking labor was

 allocated to the various types of fruit from payroll analyses or estimated

 piece rates. Fuel and repairs were prorated on a box basis equally to all

 kinds of fruit. Certain overhead expenses, which tend to be fixed, were dis-

 tributed between the several types of fruit in the ratio of 1.00 to grapefruit,

 1.50 to oranges and 3.00 to tangerines.

 The methods of picking and handling fruit (tree-to-roadside operation)

such as picking in boxes, tractor baskets, grove trailers, and pallet boxes

are mixed among the various operators. A single operator may use two or more

methods. The method used affects the cost of labor as shown in Table 1 as well

as the distribution among classes of labor. For example, picking in boxes

required loading and driving labor for the grove truck, whereas some other

method would eliminate loading. Thus an operator using some crews with the

box method and some with other picking methods would have in the aggregate a

labor distribution which would not represent either single method exactly.

 Labor costs for handling citrus in boxes are higher than for the other

methods, especially if the fruit is destined for a packinghouse. From a

limited amount of data, costs per box for packinghouse fruit were about 1

cents higher for orange pickers, but no higher for grapefruit pickers.