Cost of Prodii/cing Beets 233 



machinery and the application of scientific methods to 

 the farm. It will also be necessary to raise sugar-beets 

 in the parts of the country best adapted to their growth. 

 It is on the farm that this greater efficiency must be 

 sought, since the price paid for the beets is the chief item 

 of expense involved in the cost of beet-sugar. 



DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING COSTS 



It is often asserted that beet producers are receiving 

 abnormal profits for their crops ; and about equally often 

 the beet-growers contend that there is no profit in raising 

 beets, or that if all costs were considered the crop is 

 ordinarily produced at a loss. Data to prove either con- 

 tention can be gathered from both large and small farms. 

 In some communities only a very few farmers can pro- 

 duce beets at a profit when the average for a number of 

 years is taken. Naturally, in such places, beets become 

 unpopular and conclusive results can be given to show 

 that beets are unprofitable; in a more favored locality, 

 the opposite can be shown as readily. 



It is highly desirable to find unbiased results that will 

 show the true condition for the sugar-beet producers of 

 the country as a whole, for each locality, and for each 

 individual farm. At present such data have not been 

 determined satisfactorily. Much valuable material has 

 been compiled to show the costs, but since many factors 

 are unfortunately left out of most of these compilations, 

 they do not represent the true cost. Results in this re- 

 gard, as reported from experiments on a small scale, 

 generally show high yields and a high labor cost, indicat- 



