adding potatoes as necessary. After checking the weight, he sets the bag

off for the next operation--bag closing.

 In a newer method, the filling and weighing jobs are combined into

one operation requiring one worker per station rather than two. This combi-

nation of jobs became possible with the development of scales permitting

simultaneous filling and weighing. In filling burlap bags, the bag is

attached to a rack built on the scales which holds the bag upright and open

under the filling chute. Conversion to simultaneous filling and weighing

is simpler (and cheaper) for paper bags because they stand without support

and only have to be guided at the top by the bagging chute. Consequently,

the newer method has been adopted more rapidly by firms packing 50-pound

paper bags than those packing burlap bags.

 An obvious difference in equipment requirements between these two

methods is that, for joint filling and weighing, two scales are required per

filling station rather than one. Less labor is used, however, in the newer

method because only one man is required for filling and weighing at each

station rather than two. This ratio of labor elimination is not exactly

maintained, however, because the output of each station is reduced somewhat

when filling and weighing is done simultaneously,


 Labor Requirements

 Burlap bags,--Labor requirements for filling and weighing 100-pound

burlap bags in the Hastings area are 0.7741 man minutes per hundredweight for

performing the jobs together and 1.1223 man minutes when they are done sepa-

rately. Corresponding figures for 50-pound bags are 1.1138 and 1.5055 man