COST OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS IN UTAH AND IDAHO. 3 
has worked in cooperation with the Office of Sugar-Plant Investiga- 
tions, Bureau of Plant Industry.' 
In working out the cost figures in this bulletin, man labor was 
calculated by using an average rate per hour, based upon actual 
wages paid in 1918 and 1919. To place all records on the same 
_ basis, compensation for supervision of the farm business was omitted. 
The work of each operator was charged against the crop just as if 
some person had been hired to do each task. Likewise, the horse- 
labor cost was computed on the basis of the average price paid by 
_ farmers for this labor in the respective districts. If it is desired to 
pring the cost figures down to date, the hours of man labor and horse 
i labor can be multiplied by ere aiine rates. Similarly, changes can 
be made where increases or decreases have occurred in the cost of 
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_ materials, supplies, rent of land, or other costs. 
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: OBTAINING THE DATA. 
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_ The survey method was used. A special schedule was prepared 
and the blanks were filled out by well-trained enumerators, who 
visited the beet growers and obtained conservative estimates as to 
_ the methods and costs involved in growing the crop of the preceding 
year. Detailed records were obtained on the size of the crew and 
the normal time required in performing the various operations. 
_ Each grower was questioned systematically with reference to the 
_ successive steps that were taken in growing and harvesting the 
crop. Very few men keep systematic accounts of the daily work 
performed on each field or in connection with business transactions 
1 Some preliminary observations were made in these areas during the years 1910, i911, and 1912. The 
work at that time dealt almost entirely with farm practice, although some attention was given to certain 
special problems of farm management. Cultural information was sought with a view to offering sugges- 
_ tions for a few districts where the beet growers were experiencing difficulty in producing satisfactory yields. 
_ Subsequently it was felt that data of this character would be of value in planning agronomic experiments 
which might have a direct bearing upon some of the more urgent problems of the beet grower. The field 
_ practice of one district has features which can be adapted with profit in another; and, if encugh farms are 
‘studied, many general questions with reference to soil and crop management can be answered. The 
_ investigation was planned not only for the acquirement of field-practice information with reference to sugar 
beets, but it was also developed in such a way as to provide basic material concerning the hours of man 
labor and horse labor, the quantity of seed used, the pounds of fertilizer applied, tons of manure applied, 
and the utilization of land on farms where the sugar beet constituted one of the most important enter 
prises. 
See the following bulletins: Department Bulletin No. 693, ‘‘Farm Practice in Growing Sugar Beets for 
_ Three Districts in Utah and Idaho;”” Department Bulletin No. 726, ‘‘Farm Practice in Growing Sugar 
Beets for Three Districts in Colorado;”’ Department Bulletin No. 735, ‘‘Farm Practice in Growing Sugar 
_ Beets in the Billings Region of Montana;”? Department Bulletin No. 748, ‘Farm Practice in Growing 
Sugar Beets in Michigan and Ohio;”’ Department Bulletin No. 760, ‘‘Farm Practice in Growing Sugar 
& Beets in Three California Districts;’’ Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1042, ‘‘Saving Man Labor in Sugar Beet 
Fields.”’ 
£ Notr.—Acknowledgment is due to Messrs. R. S. Washburn and M. R. Cooper, of the Office of Farm 
_ Management and Farm Economics, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and to Mr. Byron Hunter, College 
°f Agriculture, Moscow, Idaho, for able assistance in collecting the data which are presented in this bulletins 
Acknowledgment is also due Miss Catherine R. Hawley, of the Office of Farm Management and Farm 
_ Economics, for careful work in supervising the tabulations that were used as a basis for this discussion. 
Thanks are extended to the farmers of these districts who cooperated in giving detailed estimates with 
reference to the cost of producing sugar beets. 
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