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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