h8 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
The evaluation of labor charges for the farmer and his family pre- 
sents great accounting difficulties. It is self-evident that farmers 
and their families are entitled to reasonable returns for their work. 
The enterprise survey is highly serviceable in judging the prices they 
ought in fairness to receive for their beets. Such a survey, however, 
is not equally useful in determining the farmers’ exact cost of pro- 
duction. Farming is in a sense a method of living not entirely” 
measurable by the standards of cost accounting developed for urban 
industries, where costs consist largely of actual disbursements. The 
farm home is part of the farm and the members of the family gen- 
erally perform a large part of the productive work. The farm also 
furnishes a large portion of the supplies consumed by the family. 
In addition to the immediate financial income from productive farm 
enterprises there are other forms -of return to the farmer and his 
family which it is almost impossible to evaluate—relative inde- 
pendence, the ability to carry on under conditions which would be 
fatal to an urban industry, and the expectation, frequently realized 
on western farms, of a substantial increase in the acreage value of 
farm land. For such or related reasons, or because of the immo- 
bility of farm capital, or because the standards of expenditure are 
lower on the farm than in the city, farmers generally accept a rela- 
tively low rate of immediate return. 
For the reasons mentioned it is not surprising to find that agricul- 
tural cost studies in the form of enterprise surveys have a tendency 
to show losses suffered rather than profits made by farmers. This 
was evidenced in investigations before the World War as.well as in 
those of more recent years, in which the level of farm prices has been 
admittedly low. The showing made by the sugar-beet industry, 
measured by such cost studies, is relatively favorable. 
Epwarp P. CosTiGAN, 
Commissioner.