36 BULLETIN 1188, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
OVERHEAD. 
In addition to items of expense which may be charged directly to 
the potato crop, there are certain general farm expenses of which the 
potato crop has to bear its proportionate share. These general 
expenses include such items as maintenance of buildings, lots, fences, 
roads, etc.; interest on the value of same; and miscellaneous cash 
expenses which can not be charged to any one enterprise on the farm. 
Detailed cost accounting records have established rates for this item 
and show it as a percentage of the combined labor and material costs. 
The rates applied in this study were 5 per cent for the Minnesota 
areas, 6 per cent for the Wisconsin and Michigan areas, and 8 per 
cent for the New York and Maine areas. 
OTHER COSTS. 
Taxes and insurance. — The tax and fire insurance charge against 
the potato crop represents the proportion of the total farm expenses 
for these items that the potato land capital was of the total farm 
capital. The estimated total farm capital was obtained for each 
farm, as were also the total taxes and fire insurance paid, and the 
potato crop's share was thus readily determined. A few of the 
growers carried hail insurance and the actual cash cost of this insur- 
ance was used as the charge for crop insurance. Taxes and insurance 
constituted slightly loss than 1^ per cent of the total costs. 
Bags and ba rrels.— Containers were needed to carry the crop from 
field to storage and to market. Potatoes were very seldom snipped 
in containers. Ba°p and barrels bought during the year to handle the 
crops constituted 3ie charge for this item of expense. A few of the 
growers shipped in bags in the area of Clay County, Minn., resulting 
in a relatively high charge for bags in this area. 
Storage charges. — Some growers had separate potato-storage 
buildings, and when used wholly for storing potatoes the mainte- 
nance of the building was charged to storage. Any purchased fuel 
used was charged at cost, and if it was wood from the farm it was 
charged at the prevailing price of cut wood on the farm. Hired 
storage was charged at actual cost. Many growers store part of the 
crop in the dwelling or other farm buildings. No separate storage 
charge was made in such cases, as the overhead expense covered this 
item. Few potato-storage houses were found outside Clay County, 
Minn., and Aroostook County, Me. In these two areas, however, 
about half the growers* visited had separate storage houses. 
Loss on abandoned potato acreage. — On some farms part of the 
potato acreage was not harvested because of excessively wet weather, 
hail, insects, or fungous diseases, or other causes may have made 
digging not worth while. This charge, then, consists of the expenses 
on the abandoned acres, including labor, seed, manure, fertilizer, 
use of land, and other costs. The total cost of all abandoned acre- 
age in a region, divided by the acreage harvested, is the average 
abandoned acreage cost per acre harvested. No instances were 
found where crop-insurance payments covered the item of loss on 
abandoned acreage. 
