34 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
The proper basis for prorating the costs of such items is that which most 
equitably distributes them according to the benefits derived. 
The amount of indirect labor varies with the individual farm and 
farmer. Investigations of detailed cost accounts kept on represent- 
ative farms in Minnesota, Kansas, and New York show that the 
total indirect labor on such farms amounts to from 10.8 to 23.4 per 
cent of the total labor.” The variation in rates is due in part to 
differences in cost-accounting methods and in part to differences in the 
types of farms considered. Analysis of these data shows that indirect 
labor, such ‘as is chargeable to sugar beets, ranges from 614 to 10 per 
cent of the total direct labor. As 614 per cent of total direct labor 
on sugar beets amounts to approximately 15 per cent of the labor on 
machine operations on beets, indirect labor is calculated by adding 
15 per cent of labor on machine operations to the total direct labor 
charges. The hours of direct labor have been used as the basis of 
prorating the indirect labor. 
Contract or hand-labor costs include blocking, thinning, hoeing, 
pulling, topping, and sometimes the loading of the beets onto wagons. 
All such work is “hand” labor, as distinguished from ‘machine’ 
labor, such as plowing and harrowing, which are usually performed 
by the farmer and operator or by his regular hired help. Because 
such hand labor is largely done under contract and because the con- 
tracts are uniformly drawn to include the same items it is grouped 
under “contract labor.” Hand labor, whether performed by labor- 
ers under contract for so much an acre, by the farm operator and his 
family, or by the regular farm-hired help, is charged at the contract 
rates. To the amount charged at the regular contract rate are added 
extra wages where actually paid for harvesting a crop yielding more 
than a specified tonnage or for extra hoeing, and also the estimated 
value of perquisites actually furnished the contract laborers by the 
grower of the beets. 
The contract rates were charged for these labor items because on 
the average for all the areas investigated in the nine States 82.4 per 
cent of the blocking and thinning, 77.3 per cent of the hoeing, and 
82.1 per cent of the pulling and topping were actually done under 
contract by laborers hired specifically for this work at so much an 
acre; while 13.5 per cent of the blocking and thinning, 16.2 per cent 
of the hoeing, and 13.1 per cent of the pulling and topping were done 
by members of the growers’ families, other than the growers them- 
selves, and 4.1 per cent of the blocking and thinning, 6.5 per cent of 
the hoeing, and 4.8 per cent of the pulling and topping by the growers 
and their regular hired help other than the contract beet laborers. 
The interest on the advances made by the sugar companies to the 
farmers for the payment of contract labor is treated separately as a 
capital charge, and is therefore not included as part of contract 
labor costs. } 
Horse costs, often referred to as horse-labor costs, were determined 
by separate inquiries carried on concurrently with the farm study 
of sugar-beet costs. These inquiries were conducted on a number 
of the same farms for which beet costs were ascertained. Feeds 
11 Minnesota Experiment Station Bull. 205, p. 92, shows that on 21 farms in 1920, 16.3 per cent of total 
labor was indirect labor; on 22 farms in 1921, 10.8 per cent of total labor was indirect labor; and on the 
average for the two years 1920, 1921, the indirect labor was 15.7 per cent of the direct labor. U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture Bull. 1271, p. 68, shows a rate of 13.5 per cent on Minnesota farms. U. S. Department 
of Agriculture manuscript, in press, shows a rate of 16 per cent on Kansas farms. New York Experiment 
Station Bull. 414, p. 44, shows a rate of 23.4 per cent on Mew York farms.