Cost of Producing Beets 237 



costs in the West can be paid because the yields are high 

 enough to cover them, and still leave a profit. 



The results are interesting in that they show the re- 

 lation of yield to the various factors of production in the 

 different localities, although it should be remembered 

 that climatic and soil factors are much more important 

 in determining the profitableness of beets than is labor. 

 The cultural practices, except special operations such as 

 irrigation, are thought, on an average, not to differ so 

 widely in the different states as do wages. It will be 

 noticed that the costs of hand labor and lifting and hauling 

 the beets vary somewhat according to yield and that the 

 greatest variations are in the cost of lifting and hauling. 

 Since the cost of harvesting is known to constitute from 

 one-fifth to one-third of the total cost of growing beets, 

 this is to be expected. This increases somewhat with 

 the yield. 



RELATION OF NUMBER OF ACRES RAISED TO COST AND 



PROFIT 



By arranging the data from the above survey in Table 

 XIII, according to the number of acres of beets grown, it 

 is found that the acreage of beets has but little influence 

 on the cost of production, farms with only a few acres of 

 beets producing them as economically as those with over 

 a hundred acres. Farm surveys in general show that the 

 larger farms up to a certain point are the more efficient ; 

 this is thought to hold good with beet farms as well as 

 others. A survey in Utah indicated that the proportion 

 of the land devoted to beets increased as the profitable- 



