GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN COLORADO. 
49 
tant crop at Fort Morgan, hence the machinery charge is somewhat 
greater than in the other two districts, where more enterprises shared 
this cost. 
Miscellaneous expense. — Some of the expenses of the farm, such as 
telephone charges, office supplies, etc., are general in nature and are 
not applicable to any special enterprise. They must therefore be 
carried by the farm as a whole. To make provision for these items, 
a 3 per cent charge was made on the basis of labor and material costs 
combined. If the labor and materials amounted to $60 per acre, 
3 per cent of this sum would be $1.80. This would be taken as a part 
of the total cost of producing the crop. It will be seen that the over- 
head expense for the three Colorado districts did not vary greatly. 
SUMMARY OF COSTS. 
In Table XXVII is shown a summary of costs in 1914 and 1915 for 
the three districts. The highest cost per acre was found in the Greeley 
district, but as this region was credited with the highest average 
yield, these growers had the lowest cost per ton. The cost per acre 
was $7.66 greater in the Greeley district than in the Rocky Ford 
section, but, the Greeley farmers produced sugar beets at a cost of 
$4.66 per ton, which was 33 cents per ton less than the cost at Rocky 
Ford. 
Table XXVII. — Summary and distribution of costs for three Colorado, districts. 
District. 
Year. 
Yield 
Cost 
Cost 
per acre. 
per acre. 
per ton. 
1914-15 
15.57 
§72. 53 
$4.66 
1915 
13.65 
65.00 
4.76 
1914-15 
12.99 
64.87 
4.99 
Distribution of costs. 
Labor. 
Mate- Other 
rials. costs. 
Greeley 
Fort Morgan 
Rocky Ford . 
Per cent. 
54.3 
56.9 
59.1 
Per cent. 
10.7 
9.5 
8.6 
Per cent. 
35.0 
33.6 
32.3 
Labor costs constituted the most important part of the expense in 
producing sugar beets. In the Rocky Ford district this amounted 
to 59.1 per cent. Greeley growers had the lowest percentage under 
this heading. Materials constituted from 8.6 to 10.7 per cent of 
total cost, and other costs approximately one-third. 
LABOR REQUIREMENT. 
As already stated the labor requirement in the production of sugar 
beets includes man, horse and contract labor. Since it is the general 
practice to hire a part of the work done at a stipulated price per acre, 
this contract labor is usually treated as a direct cash outlay against 
the beet crop. This item was converted to man hours by dividing 
the cash outlay per acre by 25, the cost per hour in cents. Table 
