2 BULLETIX 735, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in the irrigated areas of Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Carbon 

 Counties. Usable data were taken on 305 farms representing 

 a sugar-beet crop of 8,849 acres, being about 36 per cent of the 

 entire acreage grown for this factory during the year 1915. This 

 acreage is generally distributed throughout the entire area and is 

 believed to be typical of the region at the time the survey was made. 

 The costs here given may not be accurate for present conditions. 

 There have been, however, no changes in the methods of handling 

 the crop tending to reduce the labor necessary to produce it; there- 

 fore, by readjustment to allow for prevailing labor prices these data 

 can be applied to the present cost of production. 



Records were taken on all types of farms of the area except such 

 as seemed not typical of the region. A labor-income farm survey 

 had been made of this region in 1915 by the same men who had 

 charge of this surve}^. As the leases are for only one year and the 

 ow T ners often do not live in the region, data on many of the tenanted 

 farms are hard to get, -but records were obtained on 133 tenant farms, 

 of which 77 were farms upon which the tenant had farmed but one 

 year. After eliminating records of doubtful value, 305 records re- 

 main, on which- the statements of this bulletin are based. 



PROCEDURE. 



The data presented in this bulletin, though not taken from sys- 

 tematic records kept on the farms, are based upon a large number 

 of estimates given by beet growers. The results represent the best 

 judgment and experience of men who have been actively engaged in 

 the production of this crop. The schedules were filled out by well- 

 trained enumerators and not only afforded complete information per- 

 taining to farm practice and farm costs in the production of sugar 

 beets but also furnished- data showing the outcome of the entire 

 business of the farm for the particular crop year to which they ap- 

 plied. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION STUDIED. 



The portion of the Yellowstone Valley covered by this survey 

 (fig. 1) consists of two parts, viz, the Huntley Irrigation Project 

 and the irrigated area extending from Billings as far west as the 

 town of Park City. 



HUNTLEY IRRIGATION PROJECT. 



The Huntley Irrigation Project occupies a strip of land along the 

 south side of the Yellowstone River, from Huntley, Mont., eastward 

 to Pompeys Pillar, a distance of about 22 miles. This strip of land 

 has an average width of ?>\ to 4 miles and comprises an area of 32,405 

 acres. This land was originally divided by the Government into 



