GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN COLORADO. 



21 



Fort Morgan (Table IX). Tho higher acre cost for the former area 

 has undoubtedly been due to the fact that the disk was used more 

 often there than at Fort Morgan. 



Table IX. — Dishing data for three Colorado districts. 



District. 



Year. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 farms. 



Acres 

 disked 



per 

 farm. 



Num- 

 ber 

 times 

 disked. 



Crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Total 

 cost 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 



per 

 acre. 



Rocky Ford 



1914-15 



1915 

 1914-15 



61 



19 

 19 



20.24 

 31.3 



22.8 



2.3 

 1.6 

 1.1C 



1 

 1 

 1 



3.65 

 3.80 

 3.85 



2.52 

 1.40 

 1.5S 



9.20 

 5.18 

 6.15 



81.37 



Fort Morgan 



.83 



.9 r < 







Occasionally extra work is done on plowed land in order to accom- 

 plish some of the objects which have been referred to under disking. 

 On all fall-plowed land weeds may appear early in the spring and some 

 cultivation must be given in order to keep the field clean. In this 

 study three farms were found that reported tillage operations not 

 common to other farms. Two growers in the Rocky Ford district 

 used the cultivator, followed by a clod masher. The operation was 

 done in 1914 and 1915 with a crew of one man and three horses at a 

 cost of 95 cents per acre. One farm in Weld County reported some 

 special cultivation with a crew of one man and two horses, at a cost of 

 28 cents per acre, 



LEVELING. 



To insure a uniform distribution of water, the surface of the field 

 must be smooth and free from depressions. The land leveler (fig. 7) 

 accomplishes this result. It takes the soil from the tops of small 

 knolls and deposits the material in any slight depressions that may 

 exist. Some operators make a practice of leveling diagonally across 

 the field, and if this process is repeated at right angles the surface is 

 usually left without any serious inequalities. However, leveling also 

 serves the purpose of a float, in that it crushes many of the small clods 

 that are frequently present on the recently plowed field. Ninety- 

 eight per cent of the growers who are referred to in this study reported 

 on leveling, hence it will be seen that this practice was almost uni- 

 versal on these farms. 



Table X. — Leveling data for three Colorado districts 



District. 



Year. 



Num- 

 ber 

 of 

 farms. 



Acres 

 leveled 



per 

 farm. 



Num- 

 ber 

 times 

 leveled 



Crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Total . 

 cost 



per 

 acre. 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 





1914-15 



1915 

 1914-15 



109 

 65 

 188 



22.60 



37.3 



25.54 



2.12 

 1.76 

 1.51 



1 



1 

 1 



3.77 

 4.08 

 3.87 



2.07 

 1.33 

 1.23 



7.6 

 5.4 

 4.7 



SI. 13 





.84 











