COST OF PRODUCING WINTER WHEAT IN GREAT PLAINS. 18 
by the total number of hours the tractor was used during the year 
gave the average hour cost of running the tractor. The number of 
hours the tractor was used in wheat production, multiplied by the 
cost per hour, gave the total tractor use cost chargeable to wheat. 
(See Table 9.) 
Use cost of general farm machinery.—The items comprising the 
total charge for use of general farm machinery include depreciation 
and the annual repairs expended in maintaining this equipment. 
The total annual charge for its use has been prorated to the pro- 
ductive crop and livestock enterprises on the farm in proportion 
to the number of horse hours of work required for their production 
and maintenance. Where farm machinery was hired for use in 
producing the wheat crop the actual cash paid out was charged. 
(See Table 9.) 
Loss due to abandoned wheat acreage.—On many farms a portion of 
the seeded acreage was not harvested because the crop was either 
totally destroyed or so badly damaged that it was not worth cut- 
ting. In Clay County, Nebr., Pawnee County, Kans., and Wood- 
ward County, Okla., over 50 per cent of the growers interviewed 
reported some abandoned wheat acreage. [Expressed in percentage 
of total acreage seeded, the abandoned acreage in these counties was 
as follows: Clay County, 15 per cent; Pawnee County, 19 per cent; 
Woodward County, 26 per cent. All costs for labor, seed, manure, 
use of land unless recropped, taxes and insurance, etc., expended on 
this abandoned acreage make up the charge for loss due to aban- 
doned wheat acreage. When pastured, credit has been given for the 
value of the pasture consumed. The total cost of abandoned acreage 
in the region divided by the acreage harvested is the average aban- 
doned acreage cost per ad acre. (See Table 9.) 
Overhead.—Those miscellaneous overhead expenses which are a 
part of every productive crop and livestock enterprise, but which are 
so general that they can not be charged directly to any one single 
farm enterprise, have been grouped and prorated to the wheat account 
and other productive enterprises on these farms in proportion to the 
direct expense for labor, materials, and threshing required by each. 
This miscellaneous expense includes such items as interest and taxes 
on barn lots and fence rows, and labor and cash expense for building 
and fence maintenance. 
The total amount of the overhead expense as determined on rep- 
resentative wheat farms in those districts where corn and oats are 
rotated more or less regularly with wheat, namely, Missouri, and Gage 
and Clay Counties, Nebr., shows that this expense amounts to approxi- 
mately 12 per cent of the combined value of the labor, materials, and 
threshing costs. In all other districts where the type of farming is 
less diversified and wheat production constitutes by far the largest 
single enterprise on the farm, the overhead is equivalent to approxi- 
mately 15 per cent of the combined labor, material, and threshing 
costs. (See Table 9.) 
Interest on investment.—An interest rate of 6 per cent on the invest- 
ment was used for the two Missouricounties and Gage County, Nebr., and 
7 per cent was used for all other counties. Because of lower land val- 
ues in Thomas and Pawnee Counties, Kans., and Woodward County, 
Okla., interest on investment in wheat land in these counties is con- 
siderably lower than in the other counties studied. (See Table 9.) 
