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. 
