GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN COLORADO. 



25 



The corrugated roller was used principally by Greeley growers. 

 This implement varied in width from 8 to 9 feet and was operated 

 on 29 Greeley farms by crews of one man and two horses, and on 16 

 farm's by crews of one man and four horses. One man used a 1-3 

 crew. From 11 to 16 acres constituted a day's work with a roller 

 (Table XIII). 



Table XIII. — -Rolling data for three Colorado districts. 



District. 



Year. 



Num- 

 ber of 



of 

 farms. 



Acres 



rolled 



per farm. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 times 

 rolled. 



Crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Total 

 cost 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 



per 

 acre. 





1914-15 



1915 

 1914-15 



14 



2 



46 



24.2 

 10.0 

 24.05 



1.46 

 1.00 

 1.10 



1 



1 



1 



2.92 

 2.00 

 2.70 



1.26 

 .60 

 . 77 



3.7 

 1.3 



2.15 



SO. 60 





.26 





.39 







CLEANING DITCHES. 



Cleaning the laterals that connect the fields on the farm with the 

 main canal is usually considered a special task, otherwise this work 

 might be included under irrigation. During the irrigation season silt 

 is deposited in the main laterals as well as in the distributing ditches. 

 Dust and dead weeds may accumulate in the distributing canals 

 during the winter months. Frequently also, weeds make such 

 vigorous growth in the ditches that cutting them with a scythe and 

 clearing them away becomes necessary. In order, therefore, to 

 insure rapid delivery of water when the crop requires it, some work 

 must be devoted to cleaning ditches prior to the first run in the canal. 

 On many farms the cleaning is done with man and horse labor, while 

 in some cases man labor only is expended. 



Fifty-four per cent of all farms reporting on the field operations 

 did the cleaning by hand (Table XIV). For the majority of the 

 farms in this group cleaning was done once during the season, although 

 a few men cleaned twice. Consequently, the averages which are given 

 for the respective districts indicate slightly more than once over. 

 This operation began early in the spring and extended almost to the 

 end of the irrigation season. The greater part of the cleaning was 

 done during the month of May or early in June. There were special 

 instances where it was expedient to do some cleaning throughout the 

 summer months. Rocky Ford growers put much more time on the 

 cleaning than was expended at Greeley or Fort Morgan. The highest 

 acre cost was reported from the former area. Considerable varia- 

 tion was found in the number of acres cleaned per day. The average 

 area covered per day for the Rocky Ford area was 5.1 acres, for 

 Greeley 9 acres, and for Fort Morgan 12 acres (fig. 9). 

 69805°— 18— Bull. 726 4 



