GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN COLORADO. 27 



growers averaged slightly more than once over. In this practice 

 there was also a marked difference in the area ditched per day — 

 from 8.3 acres in the Rocky Ford district to 34.6 in the Greeley area. 

 Manifestly, the cost per acre for each district is directly related to 

 the amount of work done per day. It should be noted that during 

 certain seasons much more ditch-cleaning work is necessary in some 

 districts than in others. Out of 164 growers reporting, 44 used crews 

 made up of one man and two horses, 40 employed 'crews of two men 

 and three horses, 22 indicated the use of one man and three horses, 

 and 19 had crews of two men and two horses. The records do not 

 indicate that the crew size increased or decreased the cost per acre 



Fig. 10. — Removing silt and other debris with a homemade V ditcher. It will he seen that the deposit 

 of silt was first loosened with a plow. 



for cleaning. Where high costs are shown it simply means that more 

 work was necessary there to place the ditches in good condition. 

 In comparing hand labor with hand and horse labor in ditch cleaning, 

 it must not be assumed that the lower cost for the former justifies 

 a recommendation that the work always be done by hand. It is 

 probably true that effective work with a plow and V ditcher one season 

 will enable the grower to handle the situation by hand the succeeding 

 season. 



PLANTING. 



Planting practice was uniform throughout the three districts. 

 As a matter of fact this operation does not vary much, no matter 

 what the conditions. The four-row beet drill is an implement 



