16 



BULLETIN 726. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



was not possible to determine the number of men using manure 

 spreaders there. Fifty-eight per cent of the Fort Morgan growers 

 and 77 per cent of the Greeley farmers used spreaders. 



Table VI. — Data on use of manure for three Colorado districts. 



District. 



Year. 



Num- 

 ber of 



farms. 



Acres 

 ma- 

 nured. 



Tons 

 per 

 acre. 



Crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Total 

 cost 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 



per 

 acre. 



Rockv Ford 



1914-15 



1915 

 1914-15 



99 

 64 

 180 



9.12 

 17.90 

 12.80 



11.82 

 14.34 

 18.60 



1.5 

 1.6 



1.6 



2.56 

 3.20 

 3.30 



17.67 

 15.10 

 13.50 



34.60 

 30.80 

 27.70 



$6.64 



Fort Morgan 



6.26 





5.61 







There was a decided lack of uniformity in all districts with reference 

 to size of crew used in handling manure. One hundred and thirty- 

 fire growers, or approximately 40 per cent of the farms reporting, 

 used one man and two horses. Rocky Ford had the largest propor- 

 tion of this group. Taking all districts into consideration, there were 

 51 men who used a crew of one man and three horses to haul the 

 manure, and 25 who hauled with a crew of one man and four horses. 



On 105 farms an extra man was used to assist with the loading. 

 The horse power was about equally divided between two, three, and 

 four horse crews on these farms. 



About 41 per cent of the land devoted to beets was manured in the 

 Rocky Ford district, 47 per cent in the Fort Morgan district, and 49 

 per cent in the Greeley district. Rocky Ford had the lowest average 

 application per acre, while Greeley had the highest. There was a 

 difference of $1.03 per acre in the cost of putting on manure between 

 these two districts. The advantage for Greeley was undoubtedly 

 due to the use of larger crews. 



CROWNING ALFALFA. 



It has been pointed out that the sugar beet is not grown very 

 generally after alfalfa. When this plan is followed two plowings are 

 frequently necessary. The first operation is commonly known as 

 "crowning alfalfa." This study contains 53 records which deal with 

 crowning. On these farms only part of the beet crop followed 

 alfalfa. " Crowning" is shallow plowing. In two districts this 

 operation is known as "scalping the land." The average depth 

 which was reported on these farms was about 3 inches. It will be 

 m< n that the plow was run deep enough to cut the alfalfa crowns 

 from the long tap root. The beet growers in the Fort Morgan and 

 Greeley districts, where the largest amount of this work was done, 

 used a two-way plow almost exclusively. The two-way plow consists 

 of two plows, only one plow being available for use at a time. It is 

 possible with this type to eliminate back furrows and dead furrows, 



