GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN CALIFORNIA. 15 
Of a total of 46 farms where chiseling was reported, 61 per cent 
used a 1-man-8-horse crew, and 24 per cent a 1-man-6-horse crew. 
The width of the implement ranged from 5 feet to 8 feet, with an 
average of about 54 feet. This work was performed mainly during 
the months of March and April. 
In the Salinas area where the majority of the growers used this 
implement, practically the entire beet acreage was covered with the 
chisel in each case (Table IX), while in the Los Angeles and Ox- 
nard districts 82 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, of the beet 
acreage was covered on the few farms using this implement. How- 
ever, 22 men at Los Angeles and 25 at Oxnard used the spring tooth, 
which serves much the same purpose as the chisel. 
Fic. 6.—Dry plowing with a tractor. It will be observed that a float or planker is 
being operated simultaneously with the plow. 
Tn addition to those included in the table, three men in the Salinas 
district did the work of chiseling with tractor power. One of these 
had an 8-foot double disk and an 8-foot spike-tooth harrow attached 
behind the chisel. Another had a 10-foot spike-tooth harrow at- 
tached. The average man-labor requirement for tractor chiseling 
was 1} hours per acre. 
DISKING. 
The disk harrow was used on a relatively small number of farms. 
(See Table X.) Disking breaks up surface clods, kills the weeds, 
and firms the seed bed. Occasionally, where the harvesting of a 
preceding crop has left the surface of the field rough, this condition 
is corrected by disking the ground prior to plowing. 
