38 COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS 
It is important to note that the value of farm equipment—machin- 
ery and tools and work horses—shown in this report includes only 
that part of the total value of the equipment allocated to the sugar- 
beet crop and therefore does not represent the full value of all machin- 
ery and-work horses used in sugar-beet production. Two examples 
may make this point clear. A wagon worth $100 was used in hauling 
hay and grain, as well as sugar beets. The farmer estimated that 
one-half the depreciation and repairs on the wagon was chargeable to 
sugar beets; therefore only this one-half of the value, or $50, was 
considered the capital involved in sugar-beet production. Similarly 
the cost of maintenance and operation and the value of each imple- 
ment were allocated to beets on the basis of use, allowance being 
made for the varying wear and tear due to different uses. 
In the application of this method of analysis to work horses the 
cost and value were allocated to sugar beets on the basis of the relative 
number of hours of direct horse labor employed on the sugar-beet 
crop. If two teams, valued at $400, were used in the production of 
sugar beets for only one-half of the total time that they were employed 
on the farm during the year, the remainder of the time being used on 
other farm crops, only one-half of the total cost of maintaining the 
horses was charged to sugar beets, and consequently only $200, or 
one-half of the total value of the two teams, was allocated to sugar- 
beet production. 
Tabulations of cost data in the possession of the commission show 
that the advances made by the beet-sugar manufacturing companies 
to the sugar-beet growers for the payment of contract labor averaged 
$10 an acre and ran on the average for a period of four months. This 
is equal in capital value to $3.33 an acre for a year, which at 6 per 
cent interest amounts to 20 cents per acre, or 1.8 cents per ton, of 
sugar beets. 
Since over 70 per cent of the handwork of blocking, thinning, and 
hoeing required in the cultivation of the sugar-beet crop is done by 
contract laborers paid by the acre; and a large percentage of the 
growers of sugar beets pay to the beet-sugar companies interest on 
these advances from the time each operation is completed until the 
beets are harvested in the fall (when the amount of the loan plus the 
interest is deducted from the farmers’ beet checks); and since this is 
an actual out-of-pocket expense to a large percentage of the growers; 
this $3.33 per acre is shown as a part of the capital employed in the 
production of beets. 
Prices. 
Prices of sugar beets are the weighted average prices received by 
farmers for their beets, whether unloaded at the sugar factory or at 
the railroad spur or loading station. The returns per acre were 
obtained by multiplying the price per ton of beets by the number of 
tons harvested and dividing the product by thé number of acres of 
sugar beets harvested. 
RESULTS OF THE COST INVESTIGATION 
The results of the investigation of the cost of production of sugar 
beets are summarized in Tables 14, 15, and 16. The tables give these