IX
OPERATING IN THE RED OR IN
THE BLACK
Happily, the home gardener does not need to keep books with his tomatoes. If he likes the culture and the product, he need not inquire further.
Not so with the commercial grower. After all skill has been exercised in growing and selling, the books must show black and not red. This calls for good management and judgment not only as to what is best for the tomatoes and for the consumer but also how much one can afford to spend to gain a given advantage.
Fortunately, quality, yield and economy generally go hand in hand. One of the best ways to achieve low unit cost is to win a high yield per acre.
For the cannery crop, conditions are sometimes such that one cannot afford to apply, say, optimum fertilizer because some other factor not readily controlled may limit the returns and so make heavy feeding uneconomical.
Yield.—The average yield per acre of cannery tomatoes for the United States was, in 1940, 5.39 tons per acre and the 10-year average, to 1938, was 4.15 tons per acre. For tomatoes for fresh market, the average yield for 1940 was 148 bushels per acre, 14 bushels above the 10-year average. Of course, these yields would not satisfy a grower who calls himself successful. In the canning sections of New York, it takes about 7 tons per acre to cover costs of production. Some years ago a survey in Arkansas recorded costs as low as $36 per acre. However, the same survey showed cost per ton as $13.64. Cannery contracts that year averaged about $12.75 per ton. That does not yield much money to bank even if ten or twenty acres are grown. Rarely yields run to 25 tons per acre.
It is accordingly necessary to keep costs down and to bring yields up. Each item of cost must be scrutinized and adjusted to bring lowest cost per ton or per package.