COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
3 
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 
autotrucks 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, 
forming 78 per cent of the total production of refined sugar in con. 
‘inental 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 com- 
paratively insignificant, amounting to but $9,404 in 1922 and $9,378 
in 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 the 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 a whole, is 
primarily an agricultural industry, more than 80 per cent of its per- 
sonnel and about 50 per cent of its total capital being employed in 
agricultural processes. Costs of producing sugar beets are about 50 
per cent * of the total costs of producing refined beet sugar. 
Practically all of the beets grown in the United States are con- 
cracted for each season by the factories before a single acre is planted 
by the growers; and the factories also assist the grower to secure seed, 
hand laborers, and sometimes beet drills and other equipment. 
1 Average for 1921, 1922, and 1923 from Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States. 
3 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 produe- 
tion of refined beet sugar if the grower’s cost of production of sugar beets is used in determining the 
zost 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 
13.3 per cent of the sugar costs under the respective conditions indicated