CROP PRODUCTION STATISTICS 25 



1.53 tons in 1923, acreage cut was larger and total production was 2,619,000 tons 

 against 2,693,000 tons in 1924 and 2,756,000 tons in 1923. The large bulk of the 

 state's hay crop is tame hays made up largely of alfalfa and grain cut green for 

 hay, some clovers, timothy, millets and miscellaneous make up the remainder. 

 Wild hay acreage which is about a third of the total is largely blue-joint and 

 has a high nutritive value. 



Yields of all tame hays averaged high for the first cuttings, but throughout 

 the eastern half of the state generally later cuttings showed effects of the dry 

 weather. Since 1919 when an unusually short crop and severe winter produced 

 a great shortage of hay, production has been increased and considerable old crop 

 is carried over from season to season as reserve. Wild hay yields were above 

 average in the important producing southwestern counties, but generally below 

 average elsewhere. 



MINOR CROPS 

 Beans. 



Acreage devoted to edible beans in Montana in 1925 was 40,000 compared with 

 34,000 acres in 1924 and production 500,000 bushels against 408,000 in the preced- 

 ing year. Acre yield after losses sustained at harvest by rains and snows aver- 

 aged 12.5 bushels in 1925 against 12.0 bushels for the 1924 crop and would have 

 averaged considerably higher with more favorable weather between harvest and 

 threshing. ^ 



Beans are grown on both irrigated and dry lands and have been a cash 

 crop of growing importance in recent years in the lower valleys of south central 

 and southeastern counties. The principal variety is the Great Northern, which 

 comprises little less than 90 per cent of the 1925 production. 



Seed and Canning Peas. 



Seed peas grown mostly under contract in the irrigated valleys in south cen- 

 tral, southwestern and western districts together with peas for canning grown 

 mostly in Ravalli and Gallatin Counties are another source of cash income to 

 farmers in these sections. Considerable expansion of the pea acreage has taken 

 place in the past three years, and in 1925 a total production of 460,000 bushels were 

 estimated against the 1924 production of 292,000 bushels. Acreage in 1925 was in- 

 creased and yields per acre, especially in the western districts, ran well above 

 those of 1924. 



Sugar Beets. 



Some further expansion of the .State's acreage in sugar beets came in 1925 

 with the completion of the new factory at Chinook. The crop in 1925 had an 

 estimated total farm value of $3,080,000 against $3,969,000 in 1924, with the de- 

 crease being due to the lower contract price compared with that of 1924. With 

 the development of the sugar beet industry, winter feeding of cattle and sheep 

 has been a growing industry in the factory areas with beet pulp as the basis 

 of the fattening ration. 



Alfalfa Seed. 



Southeastern Montana is an important producer of high grade alfalfa seed 

 and other sections of the State produce seed in varying surplus quantities. The 

 1925 crop was a very favorable one. Garfield, Big Horn, Rosebud, and Powder 

 River Counties are among the principal producers in southeastern Montana, some 

 production being also found in the northern counties along the Milk River and 

 in localities west of the Continental Divide. 



Sweet clover seed, timothy seed, sunflowers for silage, cucumber seed, cucum- 

 bers for pickling, vegetable and truck crops also provide additional sources of cash 

 income on Montana farms. 



