3

COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS

was 260.5 pounds, or 2.5 pounds per ton in favor of the specified
nine States. The table further shows that there were on the average
3.4 more pounds of sugar extracted per ton of sugar beets grown in
the area investigated than on all farms in the nine States in which
the investigation was made. It may therefore be deduced that 5.9
pounds, or 2.3 per cent, more sugar was extracted per ton of sugar
beets in the area covered by the investigation than was extracted,
on the average, from all beets grown in the country. This probably
makes the cost of producing sugar beets per pound of sugar extracted,
as shown in this report, slightly less than it would have been if all
sugar-beet farms in the country had been included in the investigation.
Table 7, page 22, compares the sugar beets produced in the representative
 areas in the various States and in the country as a whole
as regards sugar content not extracted. The averages indicate that
for the three years the sugar content not extracted was smaller in
the representative areas than in the total area planted in beets in the
9 States investigated or in the 17 sugar-beet States.
These conditions indicate on the one hand that the costs per ton
obtained in this investigation are lower than the average for all
farms in the country as a whole because of the greater sugar-beet
acreage per farm and the higher yields per acre obtained on the farms
included in the investigation. On the other hand it is probable that
some of this higher yield is due to more thorough cultivation, to the
application of greater quantities of commercial fertilizer and manure,
to the use of better-grade land, or to more efficient farm management;
 and though the averages for the areas investigated are not
identical with the averages reported by the United States Department
 of Agriculture for all farms growing sugar beets, the farms
investigated and the data obtained are representative of the sugarbeet
 industry of the country.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

Direct costs.
Direct costs are costs incurred specifically for the crop of sugar
beets and directly chargeable thereto. The major items are man
labor and horse labor. Of lesser importance are tractor costs and
costs of materials such as commercial fertilizer, manure, seed, spray
material, water rented or purchased specifically for irrigating the
beets, and insurance on the crop.
Labor costs include the wages paid for hired labor, wages at the
going rates in the community for the farmer and members of his
family doing farm work on sugar beets, and the farm market value of
the perquisites actually furnished hired labor. The perquisites considered
 are house, land for garden, coal, wood, vegetables, fruit,
milk, butter, eggs, feed for horse or cow, and transportation of
laborers and their supplies. Where the hired help was given board
and lodging by the farmer, the farmer’s estimate of the value of such
accommodation was added as a part of the labor cost. These estimates
 were checked carefully by the agents of the commission and
where they were evidently out of line, adjustments were made.
The wages allowed the farmer or operator do not include remuneration
 for management or supervision, but merely the equivalent of
what would have been paid the laborer had the grower hired the
manual labor done.