Contracts for Raising Beets 93 



price has gone so low that he makes nothing. The same 

 condition is repeated to an extent with most products of 

 the farm that are marketed in the usual way. 



The farmer should have some crop that he can depend 

 on, with the selling price known at the beginning of the 

 season. This condition is found in contracted crops like 

 sugar-beets. They may not give such high returns every 

 year as some other crops, but the fact that a known price 

 can be depended on tends to stabilize the entire farm 

 business. With crops that are contracted, the farmer can 

 depend on getting his money soon after harvest. Prob- 

 ably all crops should not be contracted in advance, but a 

 desirable arrangement is to have some contracted crop 

 raised in connection with others that are marketed in the 

 usual way. 



ITEMS INCLUDED IN THE CONTRACT 



The contracts used by different sugar companies vary 

 greatly in their content. Some go into considerable de- 

 tail and specify every point ; others cover only the more 

 important questions. Items included in some contracts 

 for raising beets are the following : amount of seed to be 

 planted to the acre, price of seed, price of seeding, price 

 of beets, provision for the supervision of growing by the 

 factory agriculturist, specific directions regarding cul- 

 tural methods, time of digging, methods of topping, 

 method of weighing, method of taking tare, standards 

 for condition and composition of the beets, time of pay- 

 ment, provision for furnishing labor, and a number of 

 other points. 



