COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS
9
In ascertaining the cost of labor per hour, 10 hours were consid-
ered a working day, 25 working days considered a month, and
3,000 working hours a year, per man. The hours per day as ascer-
tained by the commission’s agents in the field are confirmed by
figures published by the United States Department of Agriculture
and investigations made by a number of State agricultural experi-
ment stations.® The investigations made by these agencies show
this to be about the number of hours and days actually worked on
farms of such character.
On every farm there are certain indirect labor items which can not
be charged to any particular farm crop or livestock enterprise and
which therefore must be prorated. These include repairing machin-
ory, harness, machine sheds, fences, barns, and drainage systems,
time spent in purchasing material with which to make repairs, in
working on public and farm roads, in looking for labor, and in farm
office work. The proper basis for prorating the costs of such items
is that which most equitably distributes them according to the bene-
fits derived.
The amount of indirect labor varies with the individual farm and
farmer. Investigations of detailed cost accounts kept on repre-
sentative 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 indi-
rect 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
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 in some cases the loading of the beets onto
wagons. All such work is “hand” labor, as distinguished from “ma-
chine” labor, such as plowing and harrowing, which are usually per-
formed by the farmer and operator or by his regular hired help.
Because such hand labor is largely done under contract and because
the contracts are uniformly drawn to include the same items it is
grouped under “contract labor.” Hand labor, whether performed
by laborers 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.
+ See Tables 585 and 586 in the 1922 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture.
' Minnesota Exp. Sta. Bul. 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
\Wo years 1920, 1921, the indirect labor was 15.7 per cent of the direct labor. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 1271,
p. 68, shows a rate of 13.5 per cent on Minnesota farms. U. S. Dept. Agr. manuscript, in press, shows
a rate of 16 per cent on Kansas farms. New York Exp. Sta. Bul. 414, p. 44,shows a rate of 23.4 per cent, on
New York farms.
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