40 BULLETIN 994, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
having definitely in mind the relation that exists between the 
special enterprise and the farm business as a whole, it is often possible 
to bring out facts leading to conclusions not indicated by the enter- 
prise alone. 
These data are extremely valuable also in the calculation of the 
overhead charge which each productive enterprise on the farm 
must carry. For example, in the study of the cost of producing 
wheat, unless the wheat land is valued high enough per acre to 
cover the nonproductive acres on the farm, the carrying charge for 
these nonproductive acres is not included in the cost of the wheat 
crop. There is also a certain amount of farm labor spent in the 
maintenance of the farm which it is impossible properly to distribute 
over the productive enterprises without having a record of the 
entire farm business, though in localities where the detailed cost- 
accounting method is followed it may be possible to arrive at a 
percentage figure which may be used to approximate the overhead 
charge on farms studied by the survey method. 
NORMAL COST FACTOR^ 
A very important function of the enterprise cost study is to estab- 
lish normal figures for various operations, yields, and costs for each 
of the farms visited. By "normal" is meant the average over a 
number of years. The advantage of this information lies in the op- 
portunity it affords of comparing the results for a particular year 
with what may be expected in the long run. Such comparisons 
provide a fundamental background for a more' accurate study of 
the variations that are likely to occur in connection with the enter- 
prises considered. 
BASIC ELEMENTS OP COST. 
From the data obtained in the enterprise surveys may be deter- 
mined the basic and stable factors of labor and materials necessary 
to production in the given enterprise, which constitute a basis for 
practical estimating of such costs at different rates for labor and 
materials. Further, the method allows the covering of a large area 
and the study of a greater number of instances than the detailed 
cost-accounting method, with a given expenditure of time and money. 
The enterprise surve)^s yield data on special crops or live-stock en- 
terprises which it would be difficult or impossible to obtain through 
the cost-accounting method, as the farms are often so widely scattered 
that the accounting method would be too costly. To obtain represen- 
tative evidence of the economic factors of the production of an enter- 
prise, it is advisable to obtain a volume of data that can not be 
economically supplied by the latter method. 
