14 
© COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
Table 77 (p. 98) presents information obtained by asking the sugar- 
beet farmers whose costs were studied how many acres they could 
plant to sugar beets without great change in the type or method 
of farming. These estimates of possible increase in the present acre- 
age range from 59 per cent in Nebraska to 271 per cent in Ohio. The 
figures indicate the possible increase in acreage in the sugar-beet 
sections. The commission’s study showed that in areas where sugar 
beets are now grown, the most strongly competing crops are 
alfalfa and other hay, beans, small grains, potatoes, and corn. In 
Colorado and Utah alfalfa is the strongest competitor with beets. 
However, alfalfa fits in well in a rotation system with sugar beets, 
particularly where it is turned under and followed by a grain crop 
and then by one or two crops of beets. In the Michigan sugar-beet 
area, the bean crop is the strongest competitor with sugar beets. 
The particular advantage of beans over beets is the smaller labor 
requirement of the bean crop. Because of the encouragement of 
diseases, continuous cropping of beans is bad cultural practice in 
much the same way as following beets with beets. Beans are well 
suited for rotation with beets either preceding or following the beet 
crop. In the western areas, in addition to alfalfa, potatoes and small 
grains are strongly competing crops. Certain diseases, notably the 
scab, affects both potatoes and sugar beets and for this reason it is 
bad cultural practice to follow one with the other in the rotation. 
Outside of the present sugar-beet areas, the potential competition 
of other crops is much stronger than within such areas. So far as 
merely the physical and biological conditions of plant growth are con- 
cerned, sugar beets could be sucessfully produced over a large portion 
of the Corn Belt. However, returns from corn and corn products 
have been high enough as compared with returns from sugar beets 
to virtually exclude this latter crop from the Corn Belt. Much the 
same thing has been true of the areas primarily devoted to spring 
wheat. In the competition between sugar beets and other corps the 
most important factor is the large labor requirements of the sugar- 
beet crop. Studies in the Corn Belt of corn harvested from the stand- 
ing stalk have shown that the man labor requirements varied from 
14.5 to 25.6 hours per acre; * and the commission’s study of sugar- 
beet labor requirements showed an average expenditure of 46 hours 
of direct labor per acre on machine operations in addition to an out- 
lay of $23 per acre for contract labor. Wheat presents an even greater 
contrast to sugar beets in this respect. Studies in the spring wheat 
and winter wheat belts show a total man labor requirement varying 
from 5.8 to 17.5 hours per acre. More than half of the heavy labor 
requirements on beets is hand labor performed either by contract 
labor or by the labor of the farmer and his family. The relatively 
small amount of such labor available in the United States constitutes 
one of the most important limitations to the expansion of sugar-beet 
acreage. 
A further limitation to the expansion of the industry exists in the ne- 
cessity for additional capital investment forspecial farm equipment and 
for heavy investment for factories. Sugar beets are grown in rows 16 
to 22 inches apart and a special drill is used for planting the seed. The 
€ U. 8. Department of Agriculture, Bull. 1000, 1921, p. 6.