h8 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS

The evaluation of labor charges for the farmer and his family presents
 great accounting difficulties. It is self-evident that farmers
and their families are entitled to reasonable returns for their work.
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 production.
 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
furnishes 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 independence,
 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 agricultural
 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.