GROWING SUGAR BEETS IK THE BILLINGS REGION. 5 



character of the lands as to the feeling of responsibility on the part 

 of the owners for the future production from the farms. Landlords 

 and tenants in this territory as a rule are not considering results be- 

 yond a 1-year period. Beets being a cash crop, the tenant can pay 

 higher rents where the land is put to beets. Continuous cropping to 

 sugar beets is practiced on tenant farms, and the fact that nearly 4 

 acres out of each 10 irrigated acres are in beets means that in some 

 cases poor methods of rotation are in use and that ideal conditions ex- 

 ist for the introduction of beet diseases and beet insects. The solution 

 of such problems is in the hands of the landlords and not the tenants, 

 as the leases can be made so that the tenant will grow less beets and 

 be able to practice a rotation of crops. Just what percentage of the 

 irrigated tillable land should be planted to sugar beets is a matter to 

 be decided for the individual farm. 



Every farm should have a proper rotation of crops, but the type of 

 soil and the other crops that can be grown have a great deal to do 

 with the percentage of the total area that should be planted in beets. 

 Previous to the introduction of sugar beets into this region there was 

 no common cultivated crop that required summer tillage, the rota- 

 tions being limited to alfalfa and small grains. Under these con- 

 ditions many weeds that thrived with such a rotation became estab- 

 lished in this region, and much land has been planted in beets in order 

 to kill out these weeds. If continued growing of beets on the same 

 lands is practiced no doubt insects and diseases of the beet will become 

 established, which will necessitate rotation to do away with these 

 pests. 



The data collected would indicate that not over 25 per cent of the 

 irrigated tillable area in this region should be planted to beets. This 

 would permit the keeping of some live stock and provide a more 

 substantial and well-balanced system of farming. 



Grain and hay farming is not adapted to the needs of, the man with 

 a small farm who is trying to get sufficient returns from the farm to 

 make a living for an ordinary-sized family. He must have crops 

 that make a larger gross return per acre and give him a chance to 

 use more labor. Man} 7 farms in this region have less than 40 acres 

 of tillable land, and some of these farms have a large percentage of 

 their tillable area planted to beets. 



Table II also shows that a smaller percentage of the irrigated land 

 on the larger farms is planted to beets than on the smaller farms. 

 The acreage of beets per farm increases with the size of the irri- 

 gated area per farm, but not in proportion. This may be due to the 

 desire on the part of each man to operate his farm with as little 

 hired labor as possible ; that is, there is a tendency toward the 1-man 

 farm. On some of the smaller farms the operator has to grow inten- 

 sive crops in order to occupy his entire time. 



