CHAPTER XVI 

 COST OF PRODUCING BEETS 



No phase of the beet-sugar industry is more elusive 

 than the cost of producing beets. The costs involved in 

 slicing the beets, extracting the sugar, evaporating the 

 juice, and handling the sugar can be determined with 

 considerable accuracy; under normal conditions, these 

 manufacturing processes are fairly constant in their cost. 

 The cost of raising beets, on the other hand, is exceed- 

 ingly variable from field to field and from year to year. 

 Cost determinations are usually made on the basis of an 

 acre of beets; but a much more useful figure would be 

 the cost of a ton of beets, or even better, the beet-cost 

 entering into a hundred pounds of sugar. The costs 

 reported thus far have been worked out largely from the 

 standpoint of the dollar basis. They have been arrived 

 at without making a detailed study of the hours of man 

 and horse labor that enter into the production of the crop 

 or without including in every case definite information 

 with reference to other items of cost that form a part of 

 the account. 



NEED FOR LOW COST 



The permanency of the beet-sugar industry in any 

 country depends on the ability of farmers to produce 



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