United States

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 829310452

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-69538

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Rethwisch, Johannes http://d-nb.info/gnd/116449764

Title:: Die Deutschen im Auslande

Edition:: Zweite Auflage

Place of publication:: Berlin

Publisher:: Verlag von Karl Siegesmund

Year of publication:: 1889

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (192 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

38 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS It is important to note that the value of farm equipment—machin- ery and tools and work horses—shown in this report includes only that part of the total value of the equipment allocated to the sugar- beet crop and therefore does not represent the full value of all machin- ery and-work horses used in sugar-beet production. Two examples may make this point clear. A wagon worth $100 was used in hauling hay and grain, as well as sugar beets. The farmer estimated that one-half the depreciation and repairs on the wagon was chargeable to sugar beets; therefore only this one-half of the value, or $50, was considered the capital involved in sugar-beet production. Similarly the cost of maintenance and operation and the value of each imple- ment were allocated to beets on the basis of use, allowance being made for the varying wear and tear due to different uses. In the application of this method of analysis to work horses the cost and value were allocated to sugar beets on the basis of the relative number of hours of direct horse labor employed on the sugar-beet crop. If two teams, valued at $400, were used in the production of sugar beets for only one-half of the total time that they were employed on the farm during the year, the remainder of the time being used on other farm crops, only one-half of the total cost of maintaining the horses was charged to sugar beets, and consequently only $200, or one-half of the total value of the two teams, was allocated to sugar- beet production. Tabulations of cost data in the possession of the commission show that the advances made by the beet-sugar manufacturing companies to the sugar-beet growers for the payment of contract labor averaged $10 an acre and ran on the average for a period of four months. This is equal in capital value to $3.33 an acre for a year, which at 6 per cent interest amounts to 20 cents per acre, or 1.8 cents per ton, of sugar beets. Since over 70 per cent of the handwork of blocking, thinning, and hoeing required in the cultivation of the sugar-beet crop is done by contract laborers paid by the acre; and a large percentage of the growers of sugar beets pay to the beet-sugar companies interest on these advances from the time each operation is completed until the beets are harvested in the fall (when the amount of the loan plus the interest is deducted from the farmers’ beet checks); and since this is an actual out-of-pocket expense to a large percentage of the growers; this $3.33 per acre is shown as a part of the capital employed in the production of beets. Prices. Prices of sugar beets are the weighted average prices received by farmers for their beets, whether unloaded at the sugar factory or at the railroad spur or loading station. The returns per acre were obtained by multiplying the price per ton of beets by the number of tons harvested and dividing the product by thé number of acres of sugar beets harvested. RESULTS OF THE COST INVESTIGATION The results of the investigation of the cost of production of sugar beets are summarized in Tables 14, 15, and 16. The tables give these

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: United States

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation