102 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
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 generally 
perform a large part of the productive work. The farm also fur- 
nishes 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 independ- 
ence, 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 immobility 
of farm capital, or because the standards of expenditure are lower 
on the farm than in the city, farmers generally accept a relatively 
low rate of immediate return. 
For the reasons mentioned it is not surprising to find that agri- 
cultural 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.