36 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
Credits. 
Credits or deductions from costs include the cash sale value of 
beet tops and the saving, if any, to the grower in purchasing from the 
factory, pulp, molasses, and sugar at wholesale prices. In the absence 
of exact information concerning the increase or decrease in yields of 
crops rotating with beets this factor was not considered in the cost 
calculations. 
Capital charges. 
Capital charges are the costs, in the form of either rent or interest, 
involved in the use of property. In sugar-beet production capital 
consists of: (1) Land; (2) equipment, such as machinery, tools, 
and horses used in the industry; and (3) working capital, whether 
in the form of money or credit, used by farmers in the production of 
sugar beets. 
In order to place the data on a comparable basis, all of the 2,242 
farms investigated in the United States were treated as if owned by 
the operators, even though cash rental was paid on 5.4 per cent and 
share rental on 41.7 per cent of the harvested beet acreage. In all 
tables of this report capital charges for the use of land and for other 
forms of capital, whether actually paid by the operator or not, were 
segregated from the other costs. 
With respect to such capital charges as relate to use of land on 
which sugar beets are grown, Table 52 (p. 81) presents three sets 
of data: 
1. The first column is on the basis of interest at 6 per cent on the market value 
of the land used. 
2. The second column is on the basis of interest at the local farm mortgage 
rates on the market value of the land used. 
5 The third column is on the basis of the annual net cash rental of the land 
seq. 
For the United States as a whole, the cash-rental method gives a 
result approximately equal to 6 per cent on the estimated market 
value of the land. 
The capital charges as shown in Tables 49 to 57, inclusive, (pp. 
80-84) and elsewhere in this report, are based on the net cash- 
rental value of the land per acre, either actual or as stated by the 
owners or growers and checked by the agents of the commission, 
and on 6 per cent interest on the other capital employed in the pro- 
duction of sugar beets. 
The cash-rental method of calculating capital charges on land is 
considered preferable to that of basing them on the market value of 
the land at 5.5 or 6 per cent interest or at the prevailing mortgage 
rate. The cash rental appears to be a nearer approximation to a fair 
charge for the use of the land than is obtained by the other methods 
because it includes little, if any, of the speculative, or home-site value 
and represents more nearly than any other charge the present eco- 
nomic rent of land for agricultural purposes.’ 
12 As provided in the schedules (see p. 106) adopted for obtaining cost data from the growers, the 
capital charge for the use of the houses which the contract and regular farm laborers occupied was classed 
as a perquisite furnished laborers, and appears, therefore, as a part of the labor cost rather than as a separ 
rate charge. Similarly, the capital charge for that part of the horse barn allocated to sugar beets was in- 
cluded in the horse-labor cost, and the capital charge for shelter for machinery and tools was included im 
the cost of equipment. 
13 Wheat and Wheat Products. . Report of the U. 8. Tariff Commission to the- President of the: United 
States, pp. 7 to 10, 1924.