Costs of Packing California Peaches in 1959

Excerpts from the report: This report presents the principal cost components involved in packing California freestone peaches for fresh market in Fresno County, California, in 1959. The packing costs in this report are for ranch and commercial sheds. Each ranch shed usually handled the fruit of only one grower, and was located on the grower's ranch. The commercial sheds handled fruit from many growers. With one exception, the commercial sheds in which observations were made were located in or near cities and on railroad sidings. The principal packing operations in ranch sheds were: (1) Unload incoming fruit with forklift trucks, (2) bring fruit to packers, (3) supply packing materials, (4) grade and pack, (5) operate lidding machine, (6) stamp, (7) tally, (8) move packed fruit to cold storage, and (9) stack packed fruit. The principal packing operations in the commercial sheds were: (1) Unload incoming fruit with forklift trucks, (2) bring fruit to dumper, (3) dump, (4) supply packing materials, (5) grade, (6) pack, (7) operate lidding machine, (8) stamp, (9) tally, (10) move packed fruit to cold storage, and (11) stack packed fruit. The operations were similar in both types of sheds except in getting fruit to the packers, grading and packing