16 BULLETIN 943, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
principal reasons for this are found in higher land values and a more 
thorough preparation of the land for wheat in the three Missouri 
districts and in the Saline County, Nebr., area. 
Since yield has a much less important influence on the cost per 
acre than on the cost per bushel, the acre cost should be the unit 
used in comparing the cost of wheat production in the districts vis- 
ited. The cost of twine, shocking, thrashing, and marketmg vary 
somewhat with yield; but, unless the yields are abnormal, this varia- 
tion is so slight that the costs per acre are comparable within a region. 
The yield per acre, however, as already pointed out, has a decided 
efi^ect on cost per bushel, as will be seen from an examination of 
Tables VI and VII. The average cost of producing winter wheat 
was $27.80 per acre and $1.87 per bushel, as compared with an aver- 
age cost for spring wheat of $22.40 per acre and $2.65 per bushel. 
It will be seen that the average cost per acre for all spring wheat was 
$5.40 less than for all winter wheat, though the average cost per bushel 
was $0.78 greater. This difference in cost per bushel is due to a lack 
of relation between the cost of producing an acre of wheat and yield 
obtained; the cost per acre of winter wheat being 24 per cent greater 
than for spring wheat, whereas the yield per acre was 77 per cent 
greater. 
RANGE IN COST PER ACRE, BY COUNTIES. 
In Table VIII the farms have been grouped according to cost per 
acre. In the five spring-wheat counties the acre cost per farm 
ranged from $12.98 to $47.84. Only 7 per cent of these farms, how- 
ever, had a cost in excess of $30 per acre, and the number with a cost 
of less than $20 per acre was of small importance in all but the two 
counties visited in North Dakota. In the two North Dakota areas 
over 78 per cent of the farms had a cost of $25 or less per acre. In 
Grand Forks County comparatively low labor and rent costs were 
found on a goodly number of farms. In Morton County the labor 
costs were fairly high, which was partially offset by a low thrashing 
cost and exceptionally low rent costs. 
The wide range in acre costs within each area is explained in the 
following manner: As a rule, those farms showing a cost of less than 
$20 per acre had comparatively low labor costs, combined with a low 
rent charge, the latter being due to a low valuation of land on owned 
farms and low yields on rented farms; and since the value of the 
share of wheat given to the landlord for the use of the land has been 
charged as rent to the operator, the rent charge on rented farms 
varied with the yield obtained. In this connection it should be noted 
that a good many of the farms in each area having a cost of less than 
$20 per acre were share-rented farms. Again, the farms in this cost 
group did not have excessive costs from abandoned wheat acreage. 
