24 BULLETIN 917, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



CULTIVATION. 



The cultivation practice includes all operations, such as breaking 

 the crust (fig. 15) before the plants come through the soil, which is 

 done by harrowing or rolling; the cultivating with common types of 

 cultivators; furrowing and sledding for irrigation; hoeing; and mis- 

 cellaneous practices employed to kill the weeds and keep the soil in 

 a proper state of tilth. The reason for including sledding and fur- 

 rowing for irrigation as parts of the cost of cultivation is that these 

 operations, although primarily- performed for irrigation, often take 

 the place of regular cultivation. 



Fig. 15.— Rolling a sugar-beet field after it has been irrigated to germinate the seed. 



Contract hand labor, such as for thinning and hoeing beets and 

 picking potatoes, is not included in the hours of labor enumerated in 

 Table III. Since this item is a direct cash outlay, it is considered 

 under the cost of production. Where farmers have done their own 

 hand labor, the labor hours have been reduced to their money equiv- 

 alent and charged as a cash item. 



On the grain crops no charge has been made for cultivation, al- 

 though a few reports showed that the farmer harrowed the grain 

 after it was planted. This operation is so closely related to the pre- 

 paration of the seed bed that it has been charged to the cron under 

 this heading. 



In growing alfalfa 10 farmers renovated the crop. This was ac- 

 complished with alfalfa renovators by 5 of the men, the others using 

 disks or harrows. Grasshopper poisoning was also included as a 

 part of the labor of cultivating, as it is an operation which has to do 

 with carrying the crop from planting to maturity. The grasshopper 

 poison used was a mixture of bran, lead arsenate, and sirup. This 

 sweetened mixture was distributed from a sack around the edges of 



