COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS
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the beets by the tops, pull them completely out of the ground, knock
them together to remove adhering soil, and throw them into windrows
for topping, which is done by hand with beet knives. The person
doing the topping takes hold of the beet roots with one hand, cuts off
the leaves and the crown, and throws the beets to piles between the
two windrows. From the piles the beets are loaded on wagons or
auto-trucks and delivered to the factory or beet dump.
RELATION OF THE SUGAR-BEET CROP TO THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY
The average annual production of sugar beets in the United States
for the three years 1921, 1922, and 1923, as shown in the 1923 Year-
book of the United States Department of Agriculture, was 6,657,000
tons, harvested from an average of 667,000 acres. The average
production of refined beet sugar therefrom was 858,600 short tons,
orming 78 per cent of the total production of refined sugar in con.
tinental United States in-those years.
Imports of sugar beets are relatively unimportant and originate
entirely in Canada. The small quantities coming in are produced near
the boundary and are manufactured into sugar in near-by factories,
mainly in Michigan. In the last quarter of 1922, following the enact-
ment of the present tariff act, sugar-beet imports amounted to only
11,755 tons, and in 1923 to only 11,722 tons. The revenue collected
at 80 cents per ton (par. 764, sec. 7, of the tariff act of 1922) is
comparatively insignificant, amounting to but $9,404 in 1922 and
$9,3781n 1923. In contrast to these small amounts from sugar beets
the three-year (1921-1923) average annual revenue collected from
imports of sugar was $115,277,828, or 26.3 * per cent of the customs
revenue obtained by the United States from all imports.
A peculiarity of the beet-sugar industry is that manufacture must
take place near the source of the raw material. Sugar beets, being
bulky and perishable, are not adapted to distant shipment or to inter-
national trade. Their production depends upon xe existence of a
near-by factory, and in turn no factory can be located far from the
sources of the raw material. The industry as a whole is a closely
integrated one, factories being entirely dependent upon an ample
and regular supply of sugar beets. The future of the domestic
refined beet-sugar industry rests upon the maintenance or expansion
of the production of sugar beets.
The culture of sugar beets and the manufacture of sugar from them
are so closely allied as to constitute virtually a single industry even
though the two operations may not be carried on by the same persons
or organizations. Beet-sugar production, considered as n oy is
primarily an agricultural industry, more than 80 per cent of its per-
sonnel and about 50 per cent of its total capital Ying olin in
agricultural processes. Costs of roducing sugar beets are about 50
per cent ? of the total costs of Droducing refined beet sugar.
} Average for 1921, 1922, and 1923, from Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States.
1 Data in the files of the commission show. on the average for the country as a whole for the two crop
years of 1921-22 and 1922-23:
a. That the grower’s cost of production of sugar beets was 47.4 per cent of the total cost of produec-
tion of refined beet sugar if the grower’s cost of production of sugar beets is used in determining the
cost of sugar production; and,
b. That the grower’s cost of production of sugar beets was 49.6 per cent of the total sugar cost if the
price paid by the factory for sugar beets is considered the cost of the beets in the production of sugar.
If the expenses incurred by the sugar manufacturer for marketing the refined beet sugar are included as
part of the total cost of sugar production, then the grower’s cost of production of sugar beets was 41.7 and
43.3 per cent of the sugar costs under the respective conditions indicated
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