Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
but commodity prices had kept pace, so that growers were still paying
about the same proportion of their yield toward labor costs. For those who
did try machine harvesting during the 1944 season, the results were mixed.
As Pioda noted in his
Chronological History
, the harvesting machinery
showed promise, but good results were highly dependent on proper plan-
ning by growers and good fi eld conditions:
Previous to the start of the harvest, the Company purchased six Marion Harvesters
for use by growers in this district. These harvesters were rented to growers at the
rate of $7.50 per acre. Two additional machines were purchased and used by
growers. About 25,000 tons of beets were harvested by machine. Working under
extremely favorable conditions, these machines did an acceptable job of topping
and loading under present abnormal labor conditions and subnormal standards of
acceptable work. Topping was badly done and the breakage of roots was high. There
were a great many beets left in the fi elds. One grower at King City, whose fi eld
conditions were ideal and who maintained a well-equipped machine and repair
shop, harvested 1400 tons in 10 days and had a top output of 208 tons in one ten-
hour day.
Despite these decent results under the proper conditions, the reliability of
the harvesting machinery was not nearly as promising:
The machines were not in operation 50% of the time. Replacement parts were pur-
chased and installed but either broke or wore out shortly after installation. Growers
became thoroughly disgusted with the poor performance of the harvesters and
fi nally refused to attempt to make use of them.
Spreckels nevertheless kept pushing growers to adopt mechanized har-
vesting and made its own modifi cations to the harvesting machinery to
improve its robustness and overall applicability to beet production. Local
farm advisors also gave detailed technical advice to growers on the plowing,
planting, and other initial crop conditions that would mesh best with a
mechanized harvest at the end of the season (Tavernetti 1946). Beginning
with the 1946 season, many growers reconsidered the advantages of mech-
anized fall work and began a major shift toward the mechanical harvesting
technology. Figure 4.7 shows a cover of the
Bulletin
from 1946 titled
“Mechanical Harvest Increases Grower Profi ts” and giving cost fi gures to
justify growers' use of the harvesting machinery. Another issue claimed
that 25,000 acres of California sugar beets would be machine-harvested in
1946 (Spreckels 1946c). Spreckels's boast was justifi ed in this case: the 1946
season saw 28,469 acres harvested by machine (Armer 1947).
